Different Shades of Darkness
by blucougar57
Summary: In the wake of his untimely death, Ianto Jones accepts a deal that will change his life forever.
1. Prologue

Much like the Dylan Thomas poem, Ianto Jones did not go gently into that good night.

Ianto had never been an especially big fan of Thomas. He had always considered Thomas's work – especially that particular poem – to be more to Jack's taste, although the subject had never come up for discussion. Really, he couldn't imagine Jack ever taking death quietly, or with stoic acceptance.

No, that was _his_ task, to accept death peacefully. Stoically. Which was why he was so surprised that, as the world went dark and the last thing he saw was Jack's tear-streaked and stricken face, all he felt was grief and rage. The rage was at the aliens that had stolen his life, and left his lover so bereft that even the words 'I love you' were agony to hear. It was directed at those who had tried to take Torchwood out of the equation and, in doing so, put them all on the back-foot, effectively diminishing their capacity to think the situation through.

Would he have gone into Thames House without any sort of precautionary measures (i.e., a hazmat suit?) had they been working with the government officials instead of around them? Of course not. And had the Hub not been blown up, they would have had the ability to analyse everything about the 4-5-6 and perhaps find an actual solution that didn't include dying.

Oh, Ianto felt rage at the injustice of it all, even more than he'd felt at Tosh and Owen's deaths. Rage for himself, and rage and grief for Jack.

In the end, he was never quite certain which emotion it was that brought _her_ to him.

One minute he was dying in Jack's arms. The next, he was standing in a room filled with dead bodies covered with stark red sheets. Two places were marked where bodies had once been, but were no longer. Jack's, he assumed, and...

He looked down at himself, half-expecting himself to be transparent, but his body seemed solid enough.

"Oh, you're all there, sweetie. I checked myself."

Ianto felt a telltale blush creep up his neck and cheeks. He turned to face the one who had spoken and all words were lost before they could even form on his lips. The woman before him was possibly the most beautiful that he had ever seen. As she sauntered towards him, he had to fight an urge to drop to his knees.

No one, but no one got him to do that, except Jack.

"Why am I not dead?" he asked, opting for what he thought was the most reasonable question, given his circumstances. The unidentified beauty actually pouted at him.

"Well, what makes you think you're not? Maybe you are dead, and I'm your own personal angel."

Ianto almost laughed, but a deeper instinct warned him that this woman, if that was what she really was, would not take kindly to being laughed at. Assuming she had everything to do with the reason why he was not currently dead on the floor, along with all the other unfortunates, he didn't care to do anything that might provoke her into reversing it... whatever _it_ was.

"Firstly, I appear to be breathing. I would have thought that breathing become somewhat obsolete at the moment of death. Secondly..."

Ianto faltered as he searched unsuccessfully for a pulse. He couldn't find one.

"Okay," the woman said with enough perky cheer to make the young man physically ill, "enough with the backplay."

Ianto blinked at her choice of phrase. He assumed she meant 'foreplay', but she was going on before he had a chance to even contemplate correcting her.

"I'm Artemis," she told him grandly, and Ianto's mind slipped automatically into archive mode.

"Artemis, Greek goddess of the hunt? _That_ Artemis?"

"Very good," she praised him dryly. "One goal to you, sweet cheeks."

He restrained himself from correcting her, again assuming it wouldn't appreciated. Instead, he fell back on familiar, if somewhat redundant protocol.

"Is there something I can do for you, Ma'am?"

Her nose wrinkled slightly, as though she couldn't work out whether she'd just been insulted or not. Ianto tamped down on his nerves, wondering at the same time why he was nervous at all if he was, indeed, dead. Then again, he conceded to himself that it was possibly a question to which he didn't really want to know the answer.

"On the contrary, sweet cheeks, it's what I can do for _you_. You're angry about dying, aren't you?"

Ianto looked down, his mind retreating briefly to that sickening moment when he'd realised that he was going to die. He recalled the grief and despair in Jack's voice, and on his face, as he'd begged him to stay. He remembered the unfairness of it all, and the rage bubbled up inside of him afresh. This time, though, it was tempered slightly by hope.

"Can you undo it?" he asked Artemis, only to realise immediately that she couldn't. A moment later, she confirmed it herself.

"Sorry, sweet cakes. No can do. But I can offer you the chance to avenge what happened to you... if you want it."

Ianto's breath caught. It was oh so very tempting. The idea of revenge against the likes of that bitch, Agent Johnson, or maybe even against the 4-5-6...? But if he'd learned nothing else during his too-short-life, it was that nothing came without a catch, or consequences.

"What will I owe you for this... opportunity?" he asked, trying hard to keep his voice completely neutral. Far from being annoyed at the question, Artemis seemed to be pleased.

"You are good. Well, at least he can't accuse me of recruiting you without giving you the heads down."

"Up," Ianto said automatically, and immediately wanted to slap himself. Artemis, however, appeared oblivious to his correction.

"Okay, the deal is that you get one act of revenge. No holds barred. You can tear whoever you like to shreds, if you like. But when you've got what you want, then I get what I want."

"And that is?" Ianto wondered, all the while thinking that all he really wanted was to be with Jack again.

"Your soul," she answered, and Ianto couldn't help but gape.

"I'm sorry. I thought you just said that you want my soul."

She smiled sweetly at him. Too sweetly.

"I did."

Pushing past the urge to freak out, Ianto forced himself to ignore the insanity of her statement, and think logically.

"Right, then. Say that I agree. What, theoretically, would you want with my soul?"

"Well, I suppose you could call it security. I'll hang on to it, and in turn you'll serve me as a Dark Hunter. There's a whole world out there, Ianto Jones, that you're not aware of, and you wouldn't have believed if you'd heard about it before now."

Ianto couldn't help himself. He lifted an eyebrow and spoke dryly.

"Ma'am, I was killed more or less by an alien fart. You might be surprised by what I'd believe."

She did look slightly put-out by that, but obviously not enough to drive away.

"There's a race called Daimons," she told him. "They prey on humans. The Dark Hunters stop them."

"And when you say stop them, that would mean...?"

"Kill them," Artemis confirmed. "Sword through the heart... that sort of thing. It's pretty simple, really."

Ianto seriously doubted that. Nothing was ever that simple.

"And I assume my life would be altered significantly as a consequence?"

Artemis tried to look innocent and failed miserably, though Ianto had no intention of telling her so.

"Well, there might be a little bit of a lifestyle change involved."

Ianto remained silent, but kept his eyebrows lifted. Artemis smirked unapologetically.

"You are so cute, did you know that? Okay, there are some rules to follow. Number one, you can't go out into the sunlight. Number two, you're going to have to be careful around the humans, because you won't have a reflection, and they might react a little negatively to your fangs."

"Please don't tell me I'm allergic to garlic now, as well," Ianto said dryly, at the same time running his tongue instinctively over his teeth. So far, there were no such fangs there, to his quiet relief.

"Relax, sweet cakes. You won't be a vampire. Look, I can get someone else to give you all the outs and ins. Just tell me, do you want to take the deal, or not?"

Ianto looked around the room slowly, his gaze sweeping over the numerous bodies. He'd wanted to protect people as part of Torchwood. Maybe, just maybe, if he took Artemis up on her offer he might be able to prevent something like this from ever happening again.

"How long will I have?" Ianto asked. "What sort of lifespan will I have?"

"Sweetie, you'll have forever, providing you don't get yourself killed, and trust me, you'll want to avoid that at all costs. Dying without a soul would be seriously bad."

The warning swept over Ianto's head. He heard the word 'forever', and that was it. His mind was made up.

"I accept," he answered firmly. "I offer you my soul. In exchange for one act of vengeance, I offer you my servitude as a Dark Hunter."

Glee lit up Artemis's face, and she squealed in a very ungodly fashion.

"Oh, you are proper, aren't you? All right, sweetie. You get your one act of vengeance, and then you're mine. When you're done, get your cute butt to New Orleans, and find Acheron. He'll teach you everything you need to know."

She reached out towards his arm, but instead reached around and closed her hand over his left buttock. Ianto yelped at the brief, painful burning sensation, and leapt away from her.

"What the hell was that?"

"Just leaving my mark on you, sweet cheeks."

"You couldn't just shake my hand on it? And why the rear?"

She grinned cheekily at him.

"I just couldn't resist. You do have a cute one. Go on, now. Do what you have to do, and then get yourself to New Orleans. And remember, stay out of the sun. By the way, you'll have a nice surprise waiting for you when you swing by your place. Go on, get moving, and no stopping to fraternise."

And as abruptly as she'd appeared, she was gone.

Ianto stood there for nearly a minute before finally moving. A part of him wanted to believe that he'd just imagined all of that, but for two facts. One, his butt hurt like hell; and two, he wasn't dead. He was standing in a room amongst dead bodies, which he should have been one of, but wasn't. Slowly, his mind began to work again, and his thoughts turned to alien on the top floor, and the innocent child trapped with it. He knew the child couldn't be saved, but he could at least be released.

As for the aliens...

Feeling the rage surface once again, Ianto went to take his one act of vengeance for the life which had been so callously stolen from him.

* * *

><p><em>to be continued...<em>


	2. Aftershocks

**A/N**: This chapter is not Gwen-friendly. It only applies to this chapter, and a couple of chapters down the track, though. Gwen is merely a side-feature in this story. For the most part, the fic will be Gwen-less.

* * *

><p>"It's over."<p>

The words sounded almost foreign in Jack's ears. One moment, he had been working with his beautiful, brilliant daughter to find a way to defeat the aliens; the next they heard an explosion that rocked the building with its shockwave. And then, Agent Johnson was relaying the words that Jack was having so much trouble comprehending, because after everything that had happened, surely it couldn't have been so simple?

"What do you mean, it's over?" Alice demanded. "How?"

"The ship blew up," Johnson told them. "It's space dust, there's ash falling all over London from it."

"Just like the Sycorax," Jack muttered, and wondered who could possibly have had access to such a weapon as that which Torchwood One had used to obliterate the Sycorax ship. That weapon had been dismantled by him personally in the wake of Torchwood One's destruction, and he knew of no other weapon on Earth with such power. Johnson went on, oblivious to his mutterings and musings.

"The alien in Thames House is dead. The glass partition has been smashed, and the alien's been torn to pieces."

Jack finally snapped back to awareness at that.

"What about the little boy? What about him?"

"Dead," Johnson answered after listening to someone at the other end of her comms unit. "He was laid out on the floor and covered by a blanket. Someone took the time to give him a little dignity."

Jack shuddered violently, and was immensely grateful when Alice slipped a comforting arm around him. It was hard enough to face losing Ianto. If he'd lost his daughter as well...

"Who did it?" he asked hoarsely. "Who?"

A long silence met the question before Johnson finally shook her head.

"No one knows. They're checking all the cameras. It shows the glass being shattered and the alien being killed, but it doesn't show who did it."

"You mean they kept their face hidden from the camera?" Alice wondered. Johnson shook her head, showing the first signs of irritation as questions were asked that she simply couldn't offer answers for.

"No, I mean the cameras apparently don't show anyone at all. Just the glass breaking, and the alien dying. It's like whoever did it was wearing an invisibility cloak. They don't show up on the cameras."

"Dad?" Alice asked softly. "Do you have any idea who it might have been?"

"The only person I know who might have been able to pull that off is the Doctor, and it's not his style to kill. He would have sent the 4-5-6 packing. He wouldn't have killed the one in Thames House, or destroyed the ship."

"Well, it doesn't matter," Alice murmured. "It's over. That's what matters. Stephen and I can go home, and you can go back to being the big hero and protecting the world."

She tried to smile, to show him that she wasn't angry with him, but was stunned to see tears filling his eyes. Ignoring the piercing stare of Agent Johnson, and the mad ramblings of Dekker who was complaining about a lost opportunity, Alice took her father's hand and led him from the room.

* * *

><p>"Mum!"<p>

Stephen charged over to them as Alice guided Jack onto a nearby bench. She gave him a quick hug before returning her attention to her father.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

Jack stared blindly at nothing in particular. Now that the situation had come to such an abrupt end, he found himself remembering the dreadful moment in Thames House when he'd lost the one person who, with the possible exception of Alice and Stephen, meant more to him than anyone. Someone who was now lost to him forever.

"He said he loved me," Jack whispered brokenly, "and I couldn't say it back to him. He was dying in my arms and I couldn't even tell him that I loved him!"

"Who?" Alice wondered.

"Ianto." Jack whispered the name with a reverence that sent chills down Alice's spine. "He was my..."

He trailed off, feeling a fresh wave of pain at the realisation that he'd refused to give any sort of a label to their relationship – not because of his profession to hate labels, but because he had been terrified by how deeply he was falling for a young man who had once conned him to get a job.

"Was he your boyfriend, Uncle Jack?" Stephen asked with innocent concern. Jack nodded, unable to speak for the fresh surge of grief. Alice sighed and hugged him to her.

"I'm so sorry, Dad."

She was, too. Despite the antagonism she'd developed over the years for her father, she knew how deeply he loved others. She saw it in his eyes every time he looked at her or Stephen, and she could see it in his grief now.

"I have to go," he said suddenly, woodenly. "I can't stay here."

She suspected she knew what he meant, but hoped that she didn't. Although, she conceded she couldn't blame him for wanting to run. That was all she'd wanted to do when she'd lost Joe, and that hadn't even been to death.

"Come home with us, Dad," she told him, knowing full well that Stephen was listening and would want an explanation sooner or later. "You need to be with family, with people who love you."

She honestly thought he was going to refuse. She truly expected him to pull away from her and walk out, and she knew she couldn't have blamed him for it. So it stunned her when he turned to her, the tiniest flicker of hope in his red-rimmed eyes.

"You... really want me to come with you?"

She couldn't suppress an urge to kiss him softly on the cheek. The last time she'd seen him look so vulnerable was when he'd turned up for her tenth birthday, and she'd watched him beg her mother for just ten precious minutes with her. It killed her now to think of how she'd let her mother's bitterness shape her own opinions.

"Yes, I do. We both do. Come and stay with us, Dad, at least for a little while. Play at being normal, just once."

He almost smiled at that, except that it brought forth yet another surge of grief and regret. He wanted what she was offering oh so much, but how much would it hurt when he had to give it all up? Because he knew damn well that sooner or later, he wouldn't have a choice, just like with his Ianto.

"For a little while," he murmured tiredly. Trying not to think of the precious young man whom he would soon have to bury, Jack allowed himself to be led from the facility by his daughter and grandson.

* * *

><p>Jack woke screaming, tears and sweat stinging his eyes. For long seconds he didn't remember where he was; he only remembered the horror of his body regrowing, and then the claustrophobia of the cement. Gradually awareness returned, and the fresh grief of loss. He sobbed softly, knowing that never again would he wake from a nightmare and find comfort in his beloved Welshman's arms.<p>

The bedroom light went on, nearly blinding him, and suddenly Alice was there beside him.

"Are you okay?" she asked softly. "Dad?"

"Not yet," he admitted in an honest confession. "I will be, eventually, but not yet."

She rested her forehead against his.

"I'm sorry. Dumb question to ask. Can you talk about it? Or would you just prefer a hug?"

Jack shuddered, and another sob escaped him. It was inconceivable to him that she wasn't rejecting him anymore, and the last thing he wanted was to scare her away with the horror stories that were his nightmares. If there was one thing he'd learnt from Ianto, though, it was that sharing your terrors diminished their power. With that in mind, he slowly and tentatively told her about his nightmare.

"It's not a blessing at all, is it?" she whispered as she hugged him to her. "Your immortality... It's a curse."

"Not entirely," Jack murmured. "It gave me you and Stephen."

Alice smiled fondly, but it was tempered by the heartbreaking knowledge that her father had just lost someone precious to him just the previous day.

"I'm sorry I can't do more to help," she said softly. Jack pressed a light kiss to her cheek.

"You already are, more than you know."

* * *

><p>In hindsight, Jack supposed it should have been no surprise that Gwen turned up on Alice's doorstep the very next afternoon, with Rhys in tow. She looked pale, tired and more than a little shaken by everything that had happened, but she didn't falter in telling him that she had carried out his wishes and protected Ianto's niece and nephew while he led them into the kitchen.<p>

Jack listened to her prattle in silence, and found himself fighting a growing urge to tell her to get out. As glad as he was to hear that she'd succeeded in doing as he'd asked, and that she herself had come through it more or less unscathed, he couldn't help resent her for that very same reason.

Once more, she'd escaped without suffering any real loss, while he'd lost Ianto forever.

And then, suddenly, she was hugging him furiously, seemingly oblivious to his lacklustre response – at least until he carefully pushed her away from him and stepped back out of her immediate reach.

"Jack?" she asked in confused concern. "What's wrong?"

"Bloody hell, Gwen," Rhys growled, "the pregnancy's gone to your head, love." He stepped around her and clapped Jack lightly on the shoulder. "I'm really sorry about Ianto, mate. I know he meant a lot to you."

Jack nodded in wordless appreciation, and was gratified that Gwen at least had the decency to look embarrassed.

"God, Jack, I'm so sorry. What with everything that's gone on, it completely slipped my mind." The words were barely out of her mouth before she looked utterly mortified. "Jack, I didn't mean it like that, I'm sorry..."

Jack glared at her, anger bubbling to the surface before he could even try to stop it.

"_He_ was not an _it_, and I'm pretty sure you didn't forget about Toshiko and Owen quite so quickly."

She stared at him wide-eyed before taking a long, deep breath.

"Okay. I deserved that. I really didn't mean it the way it came out, though, and of course I haven't forgotten Ianto." Tears welled in her eyes. "He was my friend, too, remember."

Jack visibly bristled at her words, and she held her hands up defensively.

"I didn't come here to fight with you, Jack. Look, I understand you're still hurting, but we need to talk."

"About what?" he growled, not particularly caring to continue the conversation.

"About Torchwood," she answered, her gaze flickering briefly to Alice, who was hovering quietly in the background. "About rebuilding it."

His reply was immediate, and nothing like what she was expecting.

"I'm not going back," he said flatly. "Not to Cardiff, and definitely not to Torchwood."

While Gwen gaped at him in shock, Alice started in surprise. She'd known her father was hurting badly, but she hadn't imagined anything would ever be enough to take him away from Torchwood. For a brief moment, she felt an unpleasant twinge of resentment that he hadn't quit Torchwood for her, only to immediately dismiss it. She knew certain truths now that her mother had deliberately kept from her – that her father _had_ tried to quit Torchwood more than once, but the institute had refused to allow him to leave. She knew a vital truth now, that his employment by Torchwood had been neither willing nor voluntary on his part.

"You can't seriously be considering quitting," Gwen said in disbelief.

"Is it really that hard to believe, Gwen?" Jack asked. "I'm tired. I've served Torchwood for a long time, since 1899. The only times I got away from it was because of war. I'm tired of the death and destruction, and I'm tired of losing people I love. Losing Ianto was the last straw. I can't do this anymore. I don't _want_ to do this anymore."

"But what about me?" she pressed. "I'm still here, Jack."

It was said with unmistakable emotion, but Jack was unmoved.

"You have a husband, Gwen. I shouldn't need to remind you of that."

She went red, but didn't give in.

"Jack, I spoke to an official at the Palace this morning, and the Crown won't give the go-ahead to rebuild Torchwood if you don't come back."

"Good. Let UNIT deal with the clean-up this time. I'm done, Gwen. I'm out."

Anger washed across her face.

"You selfish bastard!"

"Hey!" Alice burst out, having heard more than enough. "Don't you dare call him selfish! You just heard him say that he's worked for Torchwood for over one hundred years. He's had to make sacrifices that you couldn't begin to imagine. If anyone has the right to choose to walk away, it's him."

"She's right, love," Rhys agreed quietly. "You can't blame him for wanting out, not after everything he's lost."

Gwen stood there in silence, staring at Jack with ill-concealed hostility. Anyone else might have quailed at that look, but Jack was not anyone and he returned it easily.

"Fine," she said abruptly. "You want to quit, so go ahead and quit. I'll just have to investigate the disappearance of Ianto's body myself."

For a brief moment, her words didn't register in his mind. When it did, he all but launched himself at her, and it was only Rhys who managed to stop him in his tracks.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Jack demanded hotly. "What disappearance? What's happened to Ianto's body?"

She said nothing, and just looked at him expectantly. Fresh anger washed through Jack at her belligerence.

"You're not going to tell me anything unless I agree to go back to Torchwood, are you?"

"Not as dull as you look, are you?" she said with the smallest hint of a smirk.

"Gwen, what the hell are you playing at?" Rhys demanded, as Jack fumed at her blatant attempt at blackmailing him. "You can't mess around like this! Not about Ianto!"

"Stay out of this, Rhys," Gwen snapped. "Well, Jack? What are you going to do?"

Glowering, Jack stalked over to the phone. He dialled a memorised number, and it was answered almost immediately.

"Colonel? Jack Harkness. Yes, sir, I know... Thank you, sir, I appreciate it. That's actually the reason I'm calling. I've just learned that Ianto's body has disappeared? ...I see. Yes, I will be, and if someone has taken it, I will personally take them apart. ...No, I don't want to make it an official Torchwood investigation." He spared Gwen another glance, and was bitterly amused to see the smirk was more pronounced. Well, he was about to wipe it clean off her face. "Sir, I want it on official records that Torchwood is disbanded. I don't want it rebuilt, ever, and I know Her Majesty will accept my decision. ...Yes, sir, that's right. I'm positive. ...Yes, Gwen Cooper did survive, but I'm revoking her authority as a Torchwood agent, effective immediately. She no longer has any authority and I don't want her investigating this, or anything else. She is no longer Torchwood. ...Yes, sir. Thank you very much."

He hung up to find Gwen staring at him with an enraged look on her face, a relieved look on Rhys' face and an amused but proud look on Alice's face.

"Oh, you did not just do that," Gwen said in a low, threatening tone. Jack was utterly unapologetic.

"You got through this unscathed, Gwen. Be grateful for that. Now take your family and walk away, before something worse happens and you're not as lucky."

Her response was one Jack conceded that he should have anticipated. She stepped up close and slapped him hard across the face.

"All right, that's enough," Alice announced, even as Rhys moved in to pull Gwen away. "You can leave, right now."

"You dragged me into Torchwood, Jack," Gwen shouted. "You did! You can't expect me to walk away now!"

Jack regarded her soberly.

"I brought you in, and I'll always regret that, but you didn't exactly put up a fight, did you?"

"Damn it, Jack..."

"Goodbye, Gwen. Have a fantastic life with your family."

He stood there stoically until the door closed, and he heard the car pull away. Only then did he crumple weakly into the nearest chair.

"Dad?" Alice asked softly. "Was it true, what she said about Ianto's body disappearing?"

Jack nodded. He felt numb with shock and grief at the thought someone might have callously stolen his lover's body. There was just one person who he knew of that might be able to help him work out what had happened, and Jack just hoped he would come.

"I need to call the Doctor."

* * *

><p><em>to be continued...<em>


	3. Hope

Getting in contact with the Doctor was not a problem for Jack. He had the phone number, and the Doctor was willing enough to come. In fact, it seemed to Jack very much like the Time Lord had something of a guilt complex, given how quickly he agreed to Jack's request. As was usually the case, though, timing was the issue. Jack knew damned well that the Doctor operated to his own personal clock, and it could easily be any time between a minute and a month before he turned up.

In the meantime, Jack divided his time between investigating as best as he could, given he no longer had the extensive resources that Torchwood had previously afforded him, and spending time with his daughter and grandson.

For the first time in his life, Jack enjoyed the comfort that was being part of a family, and he relished it far more than he'd ever thought he might. He marvelled in the simple joy of shopping for groceries with Alice, and sitting with Stephen after dinner to help him with some particularly curly math questions. He thrilled in their delight when he prepared a meal for the three of them, and just being able to sit at the kitchen table and talk to Alice without any animosity between them was enough to bring tears to his eyes. It couldn't last, and they all knew it. Rather than taint their time together, though, Jack found himself appreciating every moment he had with them.

It broke his heart to acknowledge he hadn't made the same effort to appreciate his time with Ianto.

His solo investigation into the disappearance of Ianto's body bore no fruit, not that he had really expected it would. No one knew anything and the CCTV, which he found had not been tampered with, showed Ianto's body there one moment, and quite literally gone the next. Additionally, the CCTV footage of the alien's tank went blank a matter of minutes after Ianto's body vanished, and remained so for the next fifteen minutes. When the camera came back on, the alien was dead and the child who had been its prisoner was laid out reverently, covered with a red sheet that was suspiciously like the one which had covered Ianto.

By the time the Doctor finally turned up nearly a month after Jack contacted him, the immortal was ready to start climbing the walls with anxiety.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor apologised quietly after Jack farewelled his family, and joined the Time Lord in the TARDIS. "I should have been here for you. Ah, Jack, why didn't you call me when it all happened?"

Jack's expression was tired and worn, and when he answered his gaze was fixed on the floor of the TARDIS.

"Between being shot, blown up, buried in concrete, gassed to death... I guess I just never seemed to find the time to give you a call. Besides, would you really have come?"

The Doctor looked mildly affronted.

"This wasn't a fixed point in Earth's history. It could have been changed, if done the right way at the right moment. Now, there's no way to change it. I'm sorry, Jack. I can't bring Ianto back to you."

A shudder rippled through Jack, and he couldn't quite hold back a fresh onslaught of tears. He hadn't realised just how much he'd hoped the Doctor could change it, until now.

"I understand," he said in a voice that trembled a little with stress. "But can you at least help me to find out what happened to Ianto's body? He deserves a proper burial. I owe him that much, at least."

The Doctor nodded, watching Jack with sympathy and understanding.

"Yes, I'll help. Of course I will."

Jack let his breath out in a rush, aware only after the fact that he'd been holding it in the first place.

"Thank you."

* * *

><p>When the TARDIS landed in Thames House, in the room with the bodies of all the victims of the 4-5-6, it was all Jack could do not to rush out of TARDIS, gather up his lover's body and take it away himself. He wondered just briefly whether maybe that was, indeed, what had happened, but the Doctor's hand on his shoulder restrained him.<p>

"You can't go out there, Jack."

"I know," Jack answered with bitter resignation. "I can't interfere."

"No, you can't," the Doctor confirmed sternly, though not without sympathy. "However, it seems someone else is. We just need to change the TARDIS' viewing filters..."

Jack stared at the monitor breathlessly as the image flickered, and an ethereally beautiful woman came into focus.

"Who the hell is that?"

"Keep quiet, and I'll open the doors so we can hear."

Jack clamped his mouth shut and watched with growing nerves as the doors opened a little, just enough to allow them to see and hear what was going on. The woman stood by Ianto's covered corpse and, with a wave of her hand, the red sheet lifted away.

"Not bad, for a human," she remarked, and Jack bristled at the back-handed compliment. In his eyes, Ianto was absolutely perfect.

"All right," the woman said, and for an instant Jack thought she was talking to him and the Doctor. "I don't have all night. Let's get this boat on the water."

The Doctor quirked an eyebrow.

"I think she means 'show on the road'."

"Hush," Jack hissed, anxious that they didn't miss a word. And suddenly, Ianto was no longer lying dead on the floor, but standing there in all his living glory. Jack whimpered faintly, but the Doctor maintained a firm grip on his arm.

"We can't interfere in an established event. We can only watch. You know the rules, Jack."

"The rules suck," Jack growled, to which the Doctor smiled.

"Can't say I disagree with you, but you know what could happen if we interfere. Now, just watch."

And Jack did. He watched in growing shock as the young man he'd grown to love sold his soul to a Greek goddess who shouldn't even exist in return for one act of pure vengeance.

"He's immortal?" Jack whispered in shock as they watched a determined Ianto stride from the room, sheer power radiating from his new supernatural form.

"Apparently," the Doctor said dryly, "provided he doesn't get himself killed. Jack, you sensed it, didn't you? He's no longer human. She changed him, permanently."

Jack nodded. His breath was shallow from increasing excitement as what he'd just witnessed started to sink into his conscious mind.

"Yes. She's given him back to me, potentially forever."

"Jack..."

Jack stared intently at his old friend.

"Take me back to the right time, Doctor."

"What are you going to do, Jack?"

"I'm going to New Orleans, to find Ianto."

* * *

><p><em>to be continued...<em>


	4. On The Move

Ianto had a hell of a time getting himself to New Orleans.

To begin with, by the time he finished his business with the alien and fled Thames House, it was already heading rapidly towards dawn. Keeping in mind Artemis' warning about daylight, Ianto found himself a cheap room, thanking whatever other benevolent deity was out there that his wallet hadn't been removed during his brief period of death, and hunkered down to wait until nightfall. By the time night rolled around, enough time had passed to make things more than a little difficult for him, much to his quiet frustration.

It also took him far longer to get back to Cardiff from London than he'd hoped it might, mainly because he dared not travel on any sort of public transport where he might be spotted by cameras. Using the last bit of cash he had, he hired a vehicle and drove the entire way, all the while wishing sourly that his new-found status had come with some useful skill, like teleportation.

As it turned out, the journey from London to Cardiff was a phenomenal waste of time. The nice surprise that Artemis had alluded to was moot because on arrival at his flat, he found his sister and brother-in-law there already, cleaning the place out. Judging by the startled and somewhat incoherent exclamations being made by Rhiannon, Ianto figured that they had already discovered whatever it was that Artemis had left for him.

He left the flat behind, unsure over what he should feel more irritated by – that he had wasted so much time on a trip that had turned out to be utterly pointless; that he would have to fund his own passage (because he was positive that the 'surprise' was some form of payment that Artemis must have left for him); or that his sister was so quick off the mark to pack up the contents of his home and his old life. She'd always been a practical person, though, and he couldn't fault her for acting in her nature. It simply irked him that she'd barely waited twenty-four hours before moving in to pack up the remnants of his life.

He tried to access his bank account, but that had been frozen days ago by Johnson and her spooks. That didn't upset him quite as much as it probably should have, given that he doubted there was enough in the account to cover the cost of a last minute flight to New Orleans, especially given that he was going to have to make certain travel arrangements that was likely to cost him a significant amount of money. He decided fairly quickly that it wasn't worth the trouble trying to hack.

In the end, he resorted to cleaning out one of Jack's lesser and rarely used accounts. It had been well-hidden by Jack some years ago, at a time when he'd felt it necessary to keep options open to bolt. Ianto didn't know for certain, and damned if he would ever admit to not knowing, but he suspected that Jack probably had set the account up for himself after Alex Hopkins had killed himself and the rest of the Torchwood Three team nine years ago. There had been a period of a couple of years when Jack had been on his own, and Ianto supposed he'd acutely felt a threat from Yvonne Hartman. If she had made an aggressive move to retake control of the Cardiff outpost, Jack would not have been in a position to stop her, and fleeing would have been his best option to avoid the sorts of torments that Hartman would have inflicted on him.

The emergency account had been very well-hidden, and so was missed by the spooks when they tried flushing them all out by starving them of finances. For that, Ianto was immensely grateful, and he quickly set about making the necessary arrangements to get himself safely to New Orleans.

He slept for much of the flight, aided by the comfort of a business class suite, which allowed him to keep himself shielded in almost complete darkness. The stewardesses thought he was just another eccentric man with more money than he knew what to do with, but he simply didn't care. He was comfortable, he was safe and he was alive. With the exception of being without the man he loved, Ianto was momentarily satisfied with that state of affairs.

* * *

><p>He'd worked it out well. It was just after nightfall when the plane touched down. As he disembarked and headed through the terminal, his mind was a-whirl with what he had to do.<p>

Find Acheron, Artemis had told him. Acheron would train him.

It was hardly a solid starting point, but he supposed it was at least something, and something was better than nothing. Ianto grimaced. He found it more than a little disturbing how willing he apparently was of late to settle for less.

He slowed to a halt as he exited Immigration, and found himself staring incredulously. Standing apart from the veritable crowd of drivers waiting with placards bearing various names was a young man holding up a sign that read 'Ianto Jones'. Half expecting some sort of trap, Ianto approached the waiting man with caution.

"I'm Ianto Jones."

Relief filled the other man's face and he let the placard drop, as though his arms were aching from the effort of holding it up.

"Thank the gods. I wasn't told what flight you were on, and I was scared I'd missed you. Ash would've had my guts for garters if I had."

"Ash...? Do you mean Acheron?" Ianto wondered.

"Yeah, but no one calls him that. We just call him Ash. I think he prefers it."

"Okay," Ianto murmured, making a subconscious note of that little titbit. "And you are...?"

"Oh, shit, I'm sorry. The name's Eric Turner. I've been assigned as your squire, at least for the time being."

Ianto shut his eyes briefly against a threatening headache. This was all starting to get to be just a little bit too much.

"Okay, Eric, let me be honest with you. I've been a..."

"Dark Hunter," Eric supplied when Ianto hesitated. The Welshman nodded.

"Right. I've been a Dark Hunter for approximately two days. I've just gotten off a trans-Atlantic flight and I am rather tired and confused right now."

Rather than the mockery he was fully expecting, Eric nodded in understanding.

"Sorry, sir. Ash did say you were just newly made. That's why he assigned me to you. I've been a squire for years. But the way, squire is the term we use for humans who work for Dark Hunters. It's our job to run errands and such for you guys, and to make sure you're safe during the day... You know, when you can't go outside. I can run interference for you, and pretty much do anything you need me to do."

Ianto swallowed a sigh. The one thing he really needed was Jack, but he knew he hadn't misinterpreted Artemis' warning against _fraternisation_. It stood to reason. She was supposed to be the virgin goddess (though he was having serious misgivings about the likelihood of that), so any creation of hers would naturally be condemned to a solitary and fraternisation-free existence as well. He wondered distantly just how long he might have to wait before he could get away with fraternising again, and just as quickly put the thought out of his mind. That was something to worry about later.

"All right, Eric. So what now?"

"Well, I'll take you to meet Ash. Then, I think some serious clothes shopping is in order. You look like you're still wearing the suit you died in."

Ianto lifted an eyebrow.

"I _am_ wearing the suit I died in."

"Ah. Okay. Right this way, and I shall take you to meet the big guy himself."

* * *

><p>Ianto really hadn't known what to expect when he met the man that Artemis had said would train him, but he definitely hadn't expected to be introduced to a man wearing Goth-style clothes, with exquisite features who looked barely out of his teens.<p>

Acheron, apparently preferably known as Ash, stood tall at nearly seven foot, and exuded a power and authority that sent shivers through Ianto. He had long, black hair with a startling streak of red and for just a split second Ianto could have sworn that his eyes swirled with silver. He was, undoubtedly, one of the sexiest and best-looking men that Ianto had ever seen in his life. If Jack were there, he would definitely sulk at the competition. The thought almost made Ianto smile.

"Come on in, Ianto," Ash told him without bothering first to ask for confirmation that Ianto was who he was supposed to be. Somehow, Ianto didn't think this intriguing individual had any problems with identifying a new charge.

He followed Ash into a surprisingly spacious apartment that reminded him vaguely of Jack's descriptions of the TARDIS, that it was bigger on the inside. As the door closed behind them, though, he suddenly found himself under his new boss's scrutiny, and it was a less than pleasant experience.

"Artie, what the hell were you thinking?" Ash muttered as he looked Ianto up and down. Ianto frowned, not appreciating what he was hearing in Ash's tone.

"Excuse me, I am in the room."

Ash, however, was unapologetic. He dropped into an armchair, but the sudden lack of height in no way aided Ianto's comfort levels. If anything, the man was even more intimidating in such a laid-back pose. Ianto couldn't help but feel like he was back in school, fronting the Headmaster for some major infraction.

"Listen, kid, there is a reason why there are almost no Dark Hunters made from the current generations of humans. You can't deal with what's out there."

Ianto felt affronted, and his thoughts went briefly to the many traumas and trials he'd experienced in his life, right up until his death. It was insulting to think that he had survived Canary Wharf with his sanity intact, only to be told he couldn't cope with whatever it was that Dark Hunters dealt with.

"I worked for Torchwood, Sir," he said, perhaps a little more snippily than he really intended. "That particular philosophy doesn't necessarily apply to me."

Ash smiled tightly. He liked the kid, despite his better judgement... But then, he'd liked Nick, too, and look where _that_ had gotten him. The last thing he needed was to ruin someone else's life in the way he had destroyed Nick's. On the other hand, Ianto was already a Dark Hunter, so it wasn't as though he had a choice. He barely withheld a grimace. Oh, how he hoped that this wasn't the start of a trend for Artemis, as just another way to torment him. Now that he personally had no recourse to negotiate the release of anymore Dark Hunter souls, he really didn't want to see a whole new generation of infant Hunters.

Not for the first time, he sincerely regretted not being able to sic Simi onto Artemis, and just let her eat the bitch.

"I'm sure you can accept it, Ianto. I'm just not so sure than you'd last one night patrolling for daimons. Compared to pretty much every other Dark Hunter, you're... well, _puny_."

Ianto felt his face and neck heat up with embarrassment, and silently cursed that his body still reacted in such a way, especially when he was pretty damned sure that he had no cause to be embarrassed, regardless of Ash's assessment of his physical form.

"Looks can be deceiving," he replied stiffly. "I assure you I am perfectly capable, if you'll give me a chance to prove myself."

Before Ash could respond, their discussion was interrupted by the entrance of a girl who looked no older than fifteen or sixteen with long black hair and china doll features, and dressed in Goth attire the same as Ash. She peered at Ianto intently, licking her lips in a way that had him squirming on the inside.

"Ooh, he's scrawny, Akri. The Simi wouldn't get two bites out of him, even with extra barbeque sauce."

Ash rolled his eyes, but Ianto didn't miss the love in the big man's eyes.

"It wouldn't matter if you could. You can't eat this one, he's a new Dark Hunter. He's here to be trained, not eaten."

Ianto raised an eyebrow as he realised that Ash and the newcomer weren't kidding.

"I'd appreciate not being eaten, thank you," he said wryly. Ash smirked.

"Ianto, meet Simi. She's my little girl."

Simi snorted.

"The Simi isn't little, Akri. Baby Marissa is little."

Ianto watched with interest and only mild concern as he began to realise that the girl was, in fact, not a girl – not in human terms. He held his ground as she sauntered towards him, and his sharp eyes quickly noted the small horns that adorned her head, and the sharp fangs that glinted in her mouth. She was some sort of demon, he realised, and was mildly surprised to find that that fact didn't scare him anywhere near as much as he'd thought it should.

Bowing his head respectfully, Ianto spoke with the same level of formality that he had trained himself to use when dealing with the Prime Minister in Jack's stead.

"I am very pleased to meet you, Simi. It's a tremendous honour to be in the presence of someone as special as yourself."

The demon's delight at the formal address was obvious.

"Ooh, the Simi likes this one, Akri. Can I keeps him?"

Ash chuckled in amusement, his earlier intensity melting away.

"Smooth, kid," he told Ianto. "Very smooth. Sorry, Simi. You can't keep him, but I'm sure he'd be glad to be friends with you, if you promise not to eat him."

"Absolutely," Ianto agreed, smiling genuinely at the demon. He did like her, too, despite just meeting her. He got the distinct impression that here was someone who was exactly as she presented herself, with no facade and no pretences. It was a rare thing, and something that Ianto found he could truly appreciate after a past that had been filled with deceptions. Apparently, he wasn't the only one who was appreciative, as he suddenly found himself with an armful of Simi.

"Yay! The Simi has a new friend! Yan and Simi are friends for always, and I promise not to eats you."

Ianto couldn't help smiling at the innocent, if slightly odd, offer of friendship.

"And I promise to go shopping with Simi if she ever wants."

He had no idea what had prompted him to make such a promise, but it seemed to be the right thing to say, judging by the delighted squeal that followed. Then, abruptly, Simi was gone again, disappearing with a declaration that she was going to find food.

"You _will_ come to regret that promise, you realise," Ash told him as he motioned for Ianto to sit.

"Oh, I don't know. It couldn't be any worse than going shopping with Jack..."

He faltered, fresh pain filling him at the thought of his lover. He wanted nothing more than to be in Jack's arms right at that moment, and forget that the events of the last week had ever happened.

"You can't see him again," Ash said in a sober, if quietly sympathetic tone. "I'm sorry, but it's one of the necessities of becoming a Dark Hunter. He wouldn't understand what you've become, and you couldn't explain to him why you aren't aging, but he is. I'm sorry, but it's just not possible."

Ianto almost smiled at the thought that Jack wouldn't understand his not aging.

"How much do you really know about me?" he asked Ash quietly. "How much do you know about Jack?"

Ash sat back with a slight frown. The truth was that while much of Ianto's past was laid out bare before him, some aspects of that past, as well as his future, were clouded. It wasn't the type of blind-spot he experienced when he encountered someone whose life would directly impact his own. This was different. It was like looking into a vortex, where a million and more possibilities existed. It was enough to give him a migraine.

"You are Ianto Jones. You were born in Newport, Wales, and you died in Thames House in London at the age of twenty-six. You worked for Torchwood, dealing with alien phenomena. You had an ambiguous relationship with one Captain Jack Harkness..."

Ash trailed off, realising that everything about Ianto that wasn't clear was somehow connected to Jack Harkness. It was this mysterious Jack whose past, present and future was a swirling, incomprehensible mess to him, not Ianto.

"Believe me," Ianto said ruefully, "if anyone could accept what I've become, it's Jack."

"Regardless," Ash said with a shake of his head, "you can't allow yourself to be distracted. You have a hell of a lot to do to get up to speed, so you won't be a burden to the rest of the Hunters. You need to put this man out of your mind... at least for now."

Encouraged that Ash hadn't completely ruled out a reunion down the track, Ianto made a silent promise to himself that he would see Jack again, and hopefully sooner rather than later.

* * *

><p><em>to be continued...<em>


	5. Unforgotten

Ianto honestly hadn't imagined that it was possible to learn so much in one short month. Even the short time he'd had with Jack at Torchwood Three hadn't taught him so much so quickly. Not only had he been trained in fighting techniques that he hadn't thought were even physically possible, he had also discovered a couple of astonishing psychic abilities that he was now able to access. It was, Ash explained, one of the benefits of his new state of being although he'd also suggested that how beneficial it could be was entirely subjective, given that Artemis decided which Dark Hunters got which abilities.

It was with somewhat dark amusement that Ianto learnt that Artemis tended to favour certain Dark Hunters over others – in particular, Amazons. Consequently, some Dark Hunters ended up with more abilities than others. Some Dark Hunters, Ianto learned, ended up with no special abilities at all. In the end, Ianto wasn't entirely sure whether to be grateful or not that he had been granted a moderate selection of supernatural skills. What he did know was that it couldn't be a good thing to feel indebted in any way to Artemis, and he suspected that she would expect it from him regardless of what she did or didn't give him.

What had surprised him was that Ash was the only Dark Hunter who had had anything to do with his training. Apart from Ash, he'd had no direct contact with other Dark Hunters, even though he knew there were some that resided within New Orleans. Ash had explained that no two Dark Hunters could be within close proximity of each other for very long without it resulting in a degradation of their powers. Though he hadn't actually said so, Ianto gathered that it was yet another little spiteful clause added by Artemis to try and ensure the Dark Hunters led solitary and lonely existences.

Ianto had immediately queried how it was that he could be close to Ash and neither of them experience that, only to be told to focus on his training and not on insignificant matters.

It was something that Ianto chose to slot away in his mind for later reference. In the meantime, his training was dealt with equally by Ash, wolf Were Hunter Vane Kattalakis and Devlin Peltier, a bear Were Hunter whose family ran the New Orleans bar Sanctuary. Were Hunters, Ash had explained to him, came to exist back in ancient times.

Lycaon, King of Arcadia, had a beautiful wife and two sons. Not knowing that his wife was of the Apollite people (cursed by Apollo), he watched helplessly as she died horribly at the age of twenty-seven. Realising his sons would meet the same fate, he tried to circumvent the curse. Gathering as many Apollites as he could find, he began using arcane magic to change the people, trying to find a way to fool the gods. King Lycaon began splicing the essence of the Apollites with that of predatory animals, creating the first Were-Hunters. His experiments succeeded in circumventing the curse. Instead of living only twenty-seven years, they now lived for close to a thousand. Choosing the most powerful of the animals on which he had experimented, King Lycaon blended his sons with a dragon and a wolf.

For defying the will of a god, the Fates demanded that Lycaon kill his sons as punishment. When he refused, the Fates cursed the new race saying, "They will spend eternity hating and fighting until the day when the last of them breathes no more."

Whenever Lycaon blended an Apollite with an animal, he ended up with two new separate beings: one with an animal's heart and one with a human's and that, Ash explained, was how the Katagaria and the Arcadians came to be.

Frankly, Ianto thought it a fair load of crap that two races that were so closely aligned could allow their lives to be torn apart by the whim of three goddesses who, judging by Ash's scathing remarks, were little more than spoiled brats.

Dev's family were a mixture of Katagaria and Arcadian Were Hunters. Katagarians were apparently born in animal form with animal hearts, and could only take on human form at the onset of puberty when their powers were unlocked. Arcadians, conversely, were born in human form with human hearts, and could only take on animal form from puberty onwards.

From what Ianto had been able to work out, it was a fairly unique situation as, for the most part, Katagarians and Arcadians were utterly intolerant of each other. The Peltiers were a perfect example of tolerance, though. They were a big family, and family clearly overruled any petty (or even not so petty) differences. Dev, one of quadruplets, was Arcadian, as were his brothers Remi and Quinn. The fourth quad, Cherif, was Katagarian. They fought fiercely, but there were few brothers who were closer.

No, it made no difference to the Peltiers, whether they were Katagarian or Arcadian. Family was family, and that was all there was to it.

Similarly, Vane Kattalakis was Arcadian, whilst his brothers Fang and Fury were both Katagarian, but the loyalty displayed by those brothers to each other was legendary.

Ianto liked both Vane and Dev Peltier. Neither man took any crap and they could be scary as hell, even just in human form, but they were also kind and that was a quality that Ianto cherished in anyone. Also – and he would die before admitting it – Dev reminded Ianto of Jack. There was the same ferocious loyalty, the same grim determination to do what had to be done, and the same sense of duty to humankind, despite no obvious reason for it.

The Arcadian's stunning good looks weren't such a bad thing, either, and that was also something Ianto would never admit to.

He learnt fast under Dev, Vane and Ash's joint tutelage. He had to, but he also took pride in honing his new talents and abilities. And always in the back of his mind was the image of all those bodies in Thames House, and of the cruel, arrogant aliens that had so callously and so casually put an end to his human life.

"Kid, you're gonna be a great Hunter," his trainer told him at the end of a particularly gruelling training session. Ianto nodded his head politely in appreciation of the compliment.

"Thanks, Vane. But it's only thanks to the training that you, Dev and Ash have given me."

Vane laughed and clapped him roughly on the shoulder. In his previous life, that gesture would have knocked him on his arse and left him with a massive bruise at the very least. Now, he barely felt it.

"One thing I'll tell you, kid. You're way too polite for your own good. Try learning swear a little."

Ianto smiled wryly.

"I'll take it under advisement. How is Bride, by the way?"

"Happy and pregnant. I thought she'd want to stop after Trinity was born, but apparently she's out to start up our own mini-pack."

Ianto laughed, but at the same time he couldn't keep his thoughts away from the lover that he missed so desperately.

"Tell me about him," Vane urged him. "Tell me about this Jack. He must mean a lot to you. Your thoughts are always on him, and I have to admit to being curious. I don't think there's ever been a gay Hunter in the ranks."

"I'm bi, not gay," Ianto corrected him. Vane grinned, and Ianto caught a glimpse of his canine teeth glinting in the moonlight. The sight had him running his tongue absently over his own fangs.

"Trust me when I say the difference is irrelevant when you're surrounded by male Were Hunters who are intent on protecting their manhood."

Ianto chuckled, although he conceded to Vane's point.

"Their manhood is perfectly safe. And for the record, it's not men in general. It's Jack... just Jack. Before him, I had a fiancée, Lisa. She died, and Jack helped me to move on."

"In more ways than one," Vane teased lightly. Ianto accepted the ribbing good-naturedly, but couldn't resist the urge to correct Vane.

"It wasn't like that, not at first. He never made it a secret that he was attracted to me, and he flirted like you wouldn't believe. I kept threatening to report him to the boss for harassment, but we both knew it was a bit of a moot point given that he was the boss. But despite everything, he never tried to force me into anything. He waited until I was ready, and he never made me feel like I was obliged to reciprocate his feelings."

Vane regarded Ianto thoughtfully.

"He respected you?"

"Yes, in a way that I'd never experienced before."

"And if you'd never reciprocated? Would he have let you be?"

Ianto smiled fondly.

"Well, I doubt the flirting would have stopped, but I know he would never have pressured me. He would have let me be if I'd made it clear that I wasn't interested."

Vane nodded approvingly. It was not the sort of pairing he was used to, but he figured the dimensions of the relationship ought to be the same. Respect should be paramount, and this Jack had just gone up considerably in Vane's opinion, for the respect he had clearly shown to the young Dark Hunter that he was really coming to like a lot.

He decided right then and there that he would cheerfully go into bat for Ianto if his Jack ever turned up – if for no other reason than it would seriously piss off Artemis. Acheron was another matter entirely, but Vane couldn't see him denying anyone a chance for love, no matter what form it came in.

"C'mon, junior. Let's head to Sanctuary. I'll buy you a drink."

* * *

><p>When Jack arrived in New Orleans, he had to concede that he was flying blind. He had not the first clue where to start looking, and New Orleans was a big place. Worse, he kept hitting brick walls and blank stares whenever he mentioned the words 'Dark Hunter'. For perhaps the first time in a long while, he didn't know what to do. It was more than a little awkward, having no contacts that he could fall back on, and having to avoid using his wrist strap in order to keep UNIT from getting wind of his location. In the end, he found himself resorting to trolling coffee shops, desperately searching for any hint of Ianto.<p>

He'd been there in the city for nearly two weeks, growing ever more frustrated and despondent, when he finally remembered one of things that Artemis had told Ianto – that he could no longer go out in the daylight. So far, Jack had only been searching New Orleans by day, and crashing in a cheap hotel at night.

He wanted to kick himself for the mental oversight. Better late than never, he tried to reassure himself, but he didn't really believe that. With that newly remembered titbit of information in mind, though, he switched his pattern and began to search at night, while resting by day.

It was another week before he finally hit pay dirt.

* * *

><p><em>to be continued...<em>


	6. Reunited

Jack arrived at the door of the club, feeling nearly as despondent as when he had believed Ianto to be dead, and lost to him forever. It had been over three weeks now, and he'd seen nothing nor heard any whisper that might lead him to Ianto. Despite searching high and low in all the logical, and some of the more illogical places, he'd found nothing. It was like waiting for the Doctor all over again – not knowing when or where a hint might pop up, but too scared to go anywhere else in case he missed a vital clue.

After more than three weeks of futility, this was the first time that Jack had ceased his searching to rest, though it was more out of sheer misery than necessity. He was starting to wonder whether he'd been mistaken, and that it hadn't been New Orleans that Artemis had sent Ianto to after all. He hoped he was in the right place, but his memory had never been quite the same after spending nearly a millennia buried alive. At any rate, though, he had no other leads, and no choice but to either give up, or keep looking.

He would never give up.

Jack approached the door of the bar, and found himself confronted by an absolute bear of a man who looked at him like he was considering whether he was worth eating.

"I'm just looking for a quiet corner and drink," Jack said tiredly, too careworn to even attempt to flirt his way inside. "I don't want any trouble."

He didn't know why he was trying to justify himself, but it seemed to appease whatever suspicions the bouncer might have had. He was ushered through the door with no arguments.

The bar was fairly dimly lit and, by all appearances, not too heavily populated. That suited him just fine, and with the jeans and leather jacket he'd switched to, he didn't stand out too badly from those who were there. Finding himself a little table tucked away in a corner, Jack ensconced himself there, and watched his surroundings through heavily-lidded eyes. The place seemed normal enough, but something about it had the hairs on Jack's neck standing up. The bar might have looked normal enough, but instinct told him it was anything but.

The waitress was a pretty young thing called Aimee, according to her name badge. In another time, Jack would have flirted ferociously with her, but as it was, he just saw the face of a beautiful Welshman, and any desire to flirt went up in a proverbial puff of smoke.

"You look like you're missing somebody a lot," Aimee said gently. Jack glanced up at her. He made no attempt to hide the pain in his eyes.

"Yeah, I am. I've been searching for nearly a month now..."

He trailed off, fighting a sudden lump in his throat as it hit him hard that it had been nearly two months now since that terrible night in Thames House; two excruciatingly long months since he had last laid eyes on his lover. Aimee offered him a sympathetic smile, but probed no further.

"What can I get you?"

"Whiskey, straight," he answered. Truth was that he would have preferred coffee, but that in itself was just too painful.

"Okay, then. One whiskey, coming up."

When the whiskey arrived, Jack was surprised to find it was delivered as a double, and not by Aimee. He looked up to find a sinfully handsome young man standing there who, again in another time and place, would have taken his breath away and had him flirting outrageously.

"The name's Fang," the young man said. "I'm Aimee's husband." He indicated the double that he'd set on the table. "That's to say thanks for being the first guy tonight not to hit on her or give her a hard time."

Jack's gaze quickly found the woman in question currently fending off some half drunk lout who had over-extended ideas of his own attractiveness. Before he even realised it, he was getting up out of his chair.

"She deserves to be treated better than that," he growled. Fang chuckled and laid a startlingly strong hand on his shoulder.

"Down, boy. Trust me, she can take care of herself, and she's got a lot of brothers to defend her honour, even before I'd get a chance to do anything. I just wanted to say thanks for not adding to her grief. She also mentioned you were searching for someone?"

Jack nodded.

"Yeah, my... my boyfriend."

The idea that perhaps he was not in the most tolerant place for such an admission never occurred to Jack. Instead, all he could think about was that he was finally not afraid to use the word 'boyfriend'. Once the word had found its way passed his lips, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world, and Jack wanted to rage that he'd not had the courage to name Ianto as such when he should have.

"What's his name?" Fang asked, showing no indication that he was bothered by Jack's proclamation. "I can keep an ear open for news."

"Ianto. Ianto Jones. I thought he'd died, but I have reason to believe now that he's here in New Orleans."

Fang nodded amicably.

"Okay. Come by here regularly, and I'll let you know if I hear anything about him."

Jack watched Fang walk away. His 'spidey-senses' were tingling again, but he was tired and just wanted to sink into his own little bubble of misery to wallow. Inwardly focused as he was, he never noticed Fang cross the floor and speak in a low voice to Aimee. He never noticed Aimee's eyes widen, and her eyebrows shoot up. He never noticed the whisper that went around certain quarters of the bar, or the less than subtle looks that followed.

He did notice, however, when nearly an hour later darted into the bar and grabbed Fang by the arm.

"Get the word out, we need back-up at the corner of Locke and Sunderland. Ianto just got ambushed by a pack of daimons. He's holding his own for now, but he needs help."

Jack's heart leapt wildly, but his excitement was followed by a wave of icy-cold fear that crashed over him. Ambushed...?

Trying to look as casual as possible, Jack rose out of his seat. He left some money, more than enough to cover the barely-touched whiskey as well as a generous tip, and sauntered out of the bar.

* * *

><p>He hit the streets running, grateful that he knew where Locke and Sunderland was without needing directions. As he ran, his hand brushed the new weaponry of choice at his side – chosen in favour of his beloved Webley because of what Artemis had said about piercing a daimon's heart or taking off its head. It was what looked like a retractable walking stick, but in fact extended into a long and lethally sharp blade. And despite his preference for guns, Jack was well adept at using the blade.<p>

He was almost to the intersection in question when the sounds of a fight reached his ears. Rounding the corner, Jack was momentarily brought to a standstill in utter astonishment at the sight before him.

Ahead of him, Ianto was engaged in ferocious battle. He fought with two short sabres, swinging them with deadly accuracy while executing some hair-raising moves to avoid the blades and weapons of his enemies. As Jack watched, Ianto leapt into the air, twisting and rolling his body as he went, and slashing at bodies at the same time. He removed no less than three daimon heads with that slick manoeuvre, Jack noted proudly as three bodies exploded into dust.

Ianto was fighting magnificently, but the daimons were numerous, and far too many for his precious Welsh boy to contend with alone. Detaching his sword from his belt and extending it to its full length, Jack joined the fight.

* * *

><p>Ianto ducked a daimon blade and felt it whistle across his face, missing him by mere millimetres. A rapid counter-attack saw the daimon responsible dispatched quickly and cleanly, but for every daimon he destroyed, there seemed to be another two to replace it. The first twinges of panic threatened to take hold, and though Ianto fought to keep his wits about him, it was becoming increasingly difficult not to let his fear get the better of him. He knew his abilities – both fighting and otherwise – were still limited by inexperience and time, and it wouldn't be long before he started to flag.<p>

Eric had gone to get help, as Ianto didn't seem to an ability to summon other Dark Hunters to his aid, the way that Ash had told him some were able to do. Whether that back-up would arrive in time was anyone's guess.

He turned, saw a daimon coming at him, but before he could even contemplate a defensive strike, the daimon exploded into dust right in his face. He blinked, and then his eyes widened as he finally set eyes on the newcomer.

"Jack?"

Jack grinned almost manically. He desperately wanted to kiss Ianto, but the daimons who had been momentarily stunned by his abrupt arrival were starting to converge once more.

"Fight now, shag later?" he offered. Ianto couldn't help himself. With a wild cry, he launched himself back into the fight with renewed vigour, and Jack did the same.

* * *

><p>"Okay," Dev Peltier said as he, Vane, Fang, Remi and Eric arrived back at the scene of the fight. "I have to admit, I was not expecting this."<p>

Far from struggling to hold his own against the onslaught of daimons, Ianto was cutting through the rapidly diminishing swathe with an enthusiasm that bordered on disturbing – but he was not alone. Fighting alongside him, in perfect synch with the newest Dark Hunter, was the man that Fang and Aimee had spoken to in Sanctuary, who had professed to be looking for Ianto.

"You think that's the guy he's been moping over?" Remi wondered, and won himself a smack across the back of his head from Vane. He snarled in response to the solid whack. "Hey, watch it, wolf."

"Watch it yourself, Yogi. The kid hasn't been moping. Look at him fight. He learnt to hold his own against a pack of daimons in a month and a half. That's no mean feat, so show a little respect."

"He's right, Remi," Dev agreed. "Still, now that we're here..."

He trailed off as a daimon suddenly got the jump on Ianto's battle companion, and ran him through with a sword.

"Oh no," Eric whispered as the man collapsed. Ianto uttered a bellow of fury and, one by one, the remaining daimons erupted into flame until none were left.

"Pyrokinesis," Fang remarked casually. "Nice. Artemis either really likes this one, or she really hates him. Could go either way, knowing that bitch."

Vane smirked.

"He's learning to control it. More or less."

With the daimons summarily dealt with, Ianto dropped to his knees beside his companion's now lifeless body. He barely seemed aware when the Were Hunters approached, or that they had been joined by Acheron. As they came to stand around, he lifted Jack's body into his arms and cradled him gently.

"Ianto, I'm sorry," Dev said quietly. "He's dead."

"I know," Ianto sighed. "He's going to have a dreadful backache when he comes back. That sword went through his spine."

Ianto didn't have to look up to know what looks were being shared amongst the Were Hunters. When Acheron spoke, it almost amused him.

"He's dead, Ianto."

It was said perhaps a little more harshly than necessary, but Ianto supposed he thought it was necessary to snap him out of the shock that they all clearly thought he was in. He looked up finally, and his gaze found Dev.

"Dev, can I bring him back to Sanctuary? I need to get him off the cold ground."

Dev looked despairingly at Ash before sighing in defeat.

"Okay, Ianto. Okay."

* * *

><p>Ash teleported them all back to Sanctuary, and Jack was soon laid out on a bed in one of the rooms kept for guests of the non-human persuasion. Ash, Dev and Vane hovered, each one deeply worried that the evening's tragic events had succeeded in tipping Ianto cleanly over the edge of sanity. It wouldn't have been the first time a Dark Hunter had gone mad from grief and shock, but it would have been the quickest it had ever happened.<p>

"Ianto, please," Vane begged. "You've gotta realise that he's dead, and he's not coming back."

"Unless Artemis decides to be a royal bitch," Dev muttered. Ash glared at him, but anything he'd been about to say was lost to the ether when Ianto opened up Jack's shirt. The stab wound, so prominent only minutes ago, was gone. It had completely healed, as though it had never existed.

"It won't be long now," Ianto said. As though on cue, Jack suddenly lurched back to life, surging upwards with a ragged gasp. Ianto caught him and pulled him close to his body, murmuring reassurances.

"I've got you, cariad. Easy, love, just breathe."

Slowly, Jack settled and the panic and distress in his eyes faded. Then, it seemed that he suddenly became fully aware of whose arms he was in, and he began to weep openly. Ianto glanced at the observers as Jack clung to him like a distraught child.

"Would you mind? Jack and I have a bit to sort out."

"We _will_ be talking about this soon," Ash warned him before hauling Dev and Vane out of the room. Once they were gone, Ianto returned his attention to his lover, whose face was currently buried in the nape of his neck.

"Jack? C'mon, this isn't like you."

If anything, Jack's hold on him only got tighter.

"I thought I'd lost you forever," Jack said in a distraught tone. "You were dying, and I couldn't even tell you how much I love you."

Ianto's breath caught. He knew he hadn't misheard, but it still seemed surreal for Jack to actually say the words aloud. Abruptly, Jack pulled back from him and reached up to clasp his hands on either side of Ianto's face.

"Ianto Jones, I love you."

And Ianto suddenly found himself on the receiving end of one of the most passionate kisses he'd ever had. It was all that he'd ever dreamed about with Jack, and he wanted to weep that it finally happened at what was probably the most complicated time of his entire existence.

"Jack, we need to talk."

Hands gripped him with pure desperation.

"I'm not letting you go again. I can't. Please, Ianto, don't say you don't love me anymore. Don't leave me again."

The openness with which Jack was conveying his emotions and his need was startling and a little frightening. All the same, Ianto was glad to at least be able to offer some reassurance.

"No, cariad, I'm not telling you anything of the sort. I do love you. I love you so much. I'm just worried that it's you who won't want me when you hear what I have to tell you."

"You mean about you becoming a Dark Hunter, and selling your soul to Artemis?" Jack asked, and Ianto's jaw dropped.

"How do you know about that?"

Jack stroked his fingertips lightly over Ianto's face, as though reassuring himself that his lover was really there, and that he wasn't just imagining it.

"I just about went mad at losing you, and I hated myself for not telling you that I loved you. After the 4-5-6 were destroyed... that _was_ you, wasn't it?"

"Yes," Ianto confirmed. "I was given the chance for one act of vengeance. I suppose I could have used it against anyone. Agent Johnson, for what she did to you... Or Frobisher, or the PM, for giving the order for it... But in the end, I chose to end the 4-5-6, and I won't apologise for it."

Jack kissed Ianto, silencing him.

"Thank you. Thank you so much. If you hadn't done whatever it was that you did, the only way to stop them would have been to relay their signal back at them. I would have had to kill a child to do it, and the only child available was..."

"Stephen," Ianto murmured. "And you would have had to do it. In that case, I thank Artemis that she intervened when she did. It meant you never had to make that dreadful decision."

Jack shuddered a little in Ianto's arms.

"Afterwards, I went home with Alice and Stephen. Instead of doing something that would have left her hating me forever, I reconciled with her. She gave me her blessing to come and find you, you know. She said I deserved a chance to be happy again."

"I'm glad," Ianto murmured. "And I'm sorry about that fight we had. I should never have tried to force you to tell me about them."

Jack sighed as he and Ianto settled in each other's arms.

"I should have told you. No regrets, though. Just a new start. We can start again, can't we?"

"I'm not supposed to fraternise, you know," Ianto said dryly. "Unwritten rule."

"And yet it seems to keep happening anyway."

Ianto looked around almost lazily at Ash, who had reappeared in the room.

"That's hardly enough time to sort things out, Ash."

"Well, firstly, he apparently already knows what you are. Secondly, it doesn't appear to have affected his feelings for you, seeing as how he's clinging to you like a sucker cup."

Ianto smiled wryly at the oddly apt comparison. It wasn't that far wrong. He made no attempt to dislodge Jack, though. He knew the signs of the immortal's emotional insecurity all too well, and this clinginess was the most prevalent.

"All right. What do you want to know?"

Ash sank into a nearby chair.

"So this is Jack Harkness."

It was not a question, so Ianto didn't bother to answer it. Jack, however, spoke for himself.

"Captain Jack Harkness, formerly of Torchwood, now freelance."

"Formerly?" Ianto queried.

"I officially disbanded it," Jack told him. "Gwen was not happy. I think she expected me to just move on, and go straight back to work. I guess it's my own fault that she thought that, since that's more or less the line I pushed after we lost Tosh and Owen, but she underestimated how hard your loss had really hit me. I called UNIT in front of her, and told them I was disbanding Torchwood and revoking her status as a Torchwood operative. She slapped me and called me a few choice names." Jack shook his head. "She'll get over it sooner or later. She'll be happier once it sinks in that her baby will be safer for it."

"Excuse me," Ash spoke up dryly. "Still here, and still waiting for an explanation as to how you know what Ianto is, and how you knew to come here looking for him."

Jack stared piercingly at Ash, and all of a sudden his senses weren't merely tingling. They were spiking all over the place, much the same as when he'd encountered the Mara for the second time.

"I'll tell you my secrets if you tell me yours."

Ash's expression went dark and unreadable, while Ianto visibly cringed.

"Jack, please, don't piss him off. He could put us each in entirely different dimensions if he wanted to."

Ianto's plea struck a chord, and Jack relaxed a little. He had no fear of the being before him, but Ianto was clearly deferential towards him. He would do nothing to make his beautiful Welshman's life harder than it already was.

"Have you heard of the time vortex?" Jack asked, and Ash frowned.

"I don't know what that is."

As much as it galled Ash to admit it, he really didn't. Jack went on, showing no hint of smugness – something for which Ash was quietly grateful.

"It's the space-time continuum, the power behind the turning of the universe. It's because of the vortex that I'm a fixed point in time and space and, consequently, will always come back to life. A girl... a very special girl absorbed the power of the vortex to end a terrible war, and she brought me back to life after I'd been killed. Only catch was that she went a step too far and brought me back forever. That's why I came back to life tonight. That's why I will always come back to life, no matter what is done to me. And trust me when I say there have been some very creative attempts to end me permanently."

Ash regarded Jack with growing empathy.

"An immortal human... How old are you?"

Jack smirked.

"Now we're getting personal. I lost count a while back, but I would estimate that I'm around two thousand, one hundred and seventy years old. Two thousand of those years don't really count, though. I spent around nineteen hundred years buried alive beneath Cardiff, and another hundred in cryogenic freeze."

As winced, despite himself. Having the chance to talk to Jack directly, he was starting to see how the man had suffered in his life. It left some of the Dark Hunters looking like they'd grown up surrounded by lollipops and rainbows, rather than death and despair. As that thought faded, though, his mind turned to the issue of their obvious relationship.

"As a Dark Hunter, Ianto is not meant to have any personal relationships."

The defiant look in Jack's eyes was one that Ianto knew well. Ash had just laid down a challenge that Jack was all-too-ready to meet head-on.

"I never liked following the rules."

"Rules are there for a reason, Jack."

"Yeah, they stop the universe from imploding. Well, guess what? I break just about every damn law in the universe just by existing, and the universe is still here in all its infinite glory. Tell me, why are Dark Hunters not supposed to have a significant other?"

"We're immortal," Ianto said.

"So am I," Jack countered.

"We don't age."

"Neither do I."

"Grey hair, Jack."

"Shut it, you." Jack looked back at Ash, who was beginning to look more than a little amused. "I haven't heard a reason yet why we can't be together, other than it might piss off some prima donna so-called goddess who thinks she has the right to run interference in people's lives."

"She owns his soul," Ash pointed out. Jack hugged Ianto tightly.

"And I own his heart. And he owns mine. What's your point?"

Ianto swallowed. Hearing those words of devotion and love from Jack's lips was more than he had ever once hoped for. The significance of it all hit Ianto hard, and his eyes filled with tears as he tightened his own hold on Jack. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Ash stood slowly and gazed down at the two men with a thoughtful look. He, too, did not appear to have escaped unaffected by the commitment being declared.

"Would you be willing to commit to Ianto heart and soul? Tie yourself to him permanently?"

Ianto looked puzzled.

"We can't mate like the Were Hunters. Dark Hunters don't get a mating mark."

"Not what I'm thinking," Ash said. "Jack, answer the question."

"Yes," Jack answered firmly. "I would."

It was an unequivocal answer that left no doubt in Ash's mind. Oh, it was going to piss off Artemis no end, and he knew he would have to be mindful of any degree of reprisals that she might take. These two, though...

A tiny smile tugged at his lips. Love was always worth taking a chance.

"Well, I guess I'd better let Eric know that he has a new squire to train."

Ianto's eyes widened, while Jack frowned in confusion.

"Squire? What's that?"

"It's what you're going to learn to be if you want to stay with Ianto. You'll work for him, and keep him safe from harm during the day time, and basically do whatever he needs you to do. Think you can cope with that?"

"Like a butler?" Jack asked, grinning at the irony. "I can do that. I'll do whatever I have to do. I just want to be with him. That's all."

Ash nodded.

"So be it. By the way, Ianto, you can clue him in about Simi, because if he ever hurts you in any way, she'll probably eat him."

Even though it was a semi-serious threat, Ash had tried to say it as a joke. He wasn't prepared for the deathly shade of white that Jack suddenly turned. Concerned, he reached out to touch Jack's arm in a rare gesture, and was abruptly bombarded by a horrific image of Jack hanging by chained wrists, screaming himself hoarse while pieces of flesh were sliced off his body and cooked right in front of him.

Ash yanked his hand back, beyond horrified. His own human life had been indescribably shocking, but being carved up for food was one horror he had never suffered.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I should have seen that... but I didn't."

It was that cloudy kaleidoscope again, keeping him from seeing Jack's life clearly.

"It's not your fault," Ianto murmured as he hugged Jack to him. "That happened during a paradox that lasted a year. Time was reset, and only a handful of people remember it. Sadly, Jack is one of them, and he probably suffered the worst because the mad bastard responsible knew he couldn't die."

"Creative ways," Ash realised.

"Right," Ianto confirmed.

Ash took a step back.

"Take care of each other. I'll speak to Eric and he can start training Jack tomorrow."

"Ash, what about Artemis?" Ianto asked worriedly. Ash smiled grimly.

"Let me worry about her. You just do your job, and we won't have any issues. Okay?"

Ianto nodded his agreement, thoroughly relieved.

"Okay."

Then Ash was gone, and Ianto was alone again with his lover.

"All right?" he asked. Jack shuddered slightly.

"I will be. Sorry. That memory hit kind of hard."

"Don't apologise, Jack. I just want to know you're all right. And don't worry about Simi. When she finds out how special you are to me, she'll make it her mission to keep you safe."

Jack smiled weakly. Now that the adrenalin was finally wearing off, he was starting to flag badly.

"Who is Simi?"

"Simi rather defies description. You'll meet her soon enough. Now tell me truthfully, how are you feeling?"

Jack didn't even attempt to mask his discomfort.

"I hurt... Pretty badly, actually."

Ianto kissed him lightly.

"Then rest. We can talk again tomorrow."

As they settled in each other's arms on the bed, Jack sighed.

"Didn't tell you how I know about you being a Dark Hunter."

Ianto stroked his fingertips lightly up and down Jack's back, conscious that it would be sensitive to the point of pain.

"You can tell me tomorrow, although I wouldn't mind betting that the Doctor had something to do with it."

"You'd win that bet," Jack mumbled. Ianto kissed him again softly.

"Sleep, cariad. I'll be here when you wake up, I promise."

* * *

><p>Ianto lay awake for a long time, unwilling to doze off and lose the stunning image of Jack sleeping peacefully in his arms. He had always determined that he would encounter Jack again, but he hadn't imagined it would be so soon.<p>

It had been a real physical pain to him that Jack would have believed him to be dead, and that he couldn't do a thing about it. He didn't know exactly how Jack had learnt that he was alive but he was grateful for it. More to the point, though, he was grateful that Jack loved him enough to come after him. That was more than he had ever hoped for. Hell, having Jack here in his arms was more than he'd hoped for.

His mind whirled with the gravity of the promises that Jack had made. Jack had promised to effectively bind himself to him for what might well equate to an eternity. If they went ahead with it, Ianto knew he could possibly become more reliant on Jack, as his personal squire, than he had ever been during his mortal existence, but it took just the blink of an eye for him to know there was nothing he wanted more.

Once upon a time, he had fantasized about being able to give Jack an eternity of companionship. Now, he could make that fantasy a reality, and it was enough to make him weep for joy.

He just hoped and prayed that Artemis would not interfere in their newfound happiness.

* * *

><p><em>to be continued...<em>


	7. Revelations & Understandings

To Ianto's relief, Jack slept right through until the following evening, and his sleep remained undisturbed as long as Ianto stayed within physical contact. It proved what Ianto had suspected, that Jack had had no real rest since that fateful night in Thames House.

Once Jack was awake and showered, Ianto presented him with a fresh set of clothes that Ash had provided for him.

"I know, not your usual style," Ianto said wryly, "but they'll do for now."

Jack eyed the suppled leather pants, black tee-shirt and leather jacket with an amused grin. The pants reminded him of the ones he'd stolen to wear on Satellite Five (and that memory only stung a little, compared to the gaping ache it had once caused) and the jacket reminded him of the Doctor. Not the current incarnation who had called him wrong, but the previous regeneration – the one who had given him a second chance to prove his worth. _His _Doctor, and yes – he knew it was 'his' Doctor who had left him behind, but it was the next Doctor who had made the conscious choice not to go back for him.

"Oh, I don't know. I think I could make this look pretty damn good."

Ianto had to smirk as Jack donned the leather pants. They were worn leather, smooth and soft and with no unpleasant creak. Jack was right, he had to admit. He looked damned good. The pants hugged him in all the right places, leaving Ianto's mouth all-but watering.

"When did we last have sex again?"

"At least two and a half months ago now," Jack answered, his grin widening in anticipation as Ianto stalked towards him and pushed him back onto the bed.

"Mm, way too long," Ianto growled. "And you know what the best part is? I can't get sick. No need to worry about STDs and the like."

"Or condoms," Jack realised with renewed delight. "Just..."

Ianto held up his hand and a bottle of lube appeared in his hand.

"Nice trick," Jack said appreciatively.

'I can teleport small objects short distances," Ianto explained simply. "Provided I know where they are to begin with, of course."

"Enough talk," Jack growled, pulling Ianto down on top of him. "Show me that you're really here. I need to feel you, Ianto. Every inch of you."

Ianto kissed Jack hungrily.

"You will, cariad. You will."

* * *

><p>In another part of the house, Remi came storming out of his room, furious.<p>

"Who took my new bottle of lube?"

"Oh, I did not just hear you say that!" Cherif bellowed. Dev, however, was grinning evilly.

"You'll want to take that up with Ianto, but I'd recommend waiting."

Remi's eyebrows shot up, and his expression turned incredulous.

"Seriously? They're at it already?"

"Hey, I lost on that bet," Fang piped up as he walked past with one of the newest bear cubs snuggled in his arms. "I thought they'd be at it the second Ash vacated the room."

"You're all Neanderthals," Aimee retorted. "They're in love and they've just found each other again, so leave them alone."

"We will," Dev assured her. "They'd just better hope that Artemis does, too."

"One thing I'm sure of," Aimee mused. "I think Ash has taken a bit of a liking to Jack. If Artemis tries anything with them, Ash will have her guts for garters. And he doesn't, then Simi will."

* * *

><p>They emerged finally three hours later, with Jack feeling sorer in certain places than he had for a long time, and loving every bit of it. Ianto's newfound longevity in the sex department had surprised him, albeit pleasantly, and it was all he could do not to walk bow-legged when Ianto took him downstairs.<p>

"What is this place?" Jack wondered as Ianto bade him sit at the kitchen table.

"These are the living quarters that are attached to Sanctuary. That's the bar you were in last night when you heard that I was in trouble. It's well-sealed off so that no humans can get through by mistake."

"Any particular reason why?"

Before Ianto could answer that, a bear cub came charging through the kitchen, with a young girl close behind.

"Sorry!" she gasped. "The little beast got away from me." She scooped up the cub and carried him out, as though it was the most natural thing in the world. Ianto chuckled.

"_That's_ why."

"That was a bear," Jack said in a bemused tone.

"Yes, it was," Ianto confirmed. "That's because Sanctuary is run by a family of... well, were-bears, for want of a better phrase."

Jack digested that piece of information slowly.

"Were-bears. As in half-human and half-bear?"

"Right. In this family, the Peltier family, the bear half is the dominant half. If you were to happen on most of the family while they sleep, you'd see them in bear form."

"And there are a lot of different species of Weres out there?" Jack guessed.

"Right. Fang met you last night before you came running to my rescue. He and his brothers Vane and Fury are wolves. They're all known as Were-Hunters. I won't overload you with information right now, but I think you'll pick it all up quickly enough."

"So... The Peltiers run Sanctuary as a family business?" Jack queried.

"Right."

"Is it a club for Were-Hunters and Dark Hunters?"

"It's a club for anyone who wants to come in, provided they don't want to cause trouble. There's a motto here. Come in peace, or leave in pieces. The Peltiers live by that rule, and they make sure anyone who walks through the door does the same."

"I like that motto," Jack murmured. "It works for me."

Ianto smiled, both bemused and relieved by how easily Jack was coming to terms with everything.

"You never finished telling me how you knew I was alive, or how you knew where to come looking for me."

Jack wasn't entirely keen to relive that anxiety, but he knew he owed Ianto an explanation. He also wanted the young man to understand why he'd cut Gwen off cold.

"I'd been up at Alice's place for all of a day when Gwen turned up. She all but demanded that I go back to Torchwood, and rebuild it with her. To be fair, she was probably thinking about carrying on, like I said we had to after we lost Tosh and Owen. I might have been prepared to, if she hadn't been so quick off the mark. I mean, we hadn't even buried you..."

Jack faltered, his voice cracking a little. A hand closed over his, and his gaze focused on Ianto, who smiled gently.

"I'm right here, Jack. It's okay."

Drawing in a shuddering breath, Jack went on with his story.

"I said I wasn't going back. Then, as a last resort tactic, she said she'd just have to investigate the disappearance of your body on her own."

Ianto felt his stomach knot up, stunned that Gwen could have been so deliberately manipulative. He honestly thought she had moved beyond that sort of immature behaviour.

"She seriously tried to hold you to ransom like that?"

"Yeah, she really did. And when I demanded more information, she just smirked at me... like that look on her face that night when she confronted me about Jonah Bevan, and said she couldn't stop looking into it."

Ianto grimaced. He remembered that defiant, slightly smug look all too well. It was a look that had said 'this is what I'm doing, and you can't do anything to stop me'. Her challenge to Jack's authority in that instance had led to nothing but grief – not just for her, but for everyone around her as well. It sounded very much as though she had not learnt from that experience.

"So you did what...?"

"I called Colonel Oduya to confirm your body was gone. Then I told him I was officially disbanding Torchwood, and completely revoking all of Gwen's authority as a Torchwood agent."

"Bet she was thrilled with that."

"I think that might have been when she slapped me. I admit it was partly out of spite, but I still think she'll be happier once she realises that being out of Torchwood will keep her family safe."

"I hope so," Ianto murmured. "So, I assume you went ahead and investigated on your own?"

"Actually, the first thing I did was call the Doctor. _Then_ I investigated, because it took him a month to show up."

"Doesn't he have a time machine?"

"He's a lousy driver, but don't ever tell him I said so. He can be a little sensitive."

Ianto snorted derisively at that.

"Why am I not surprised?"

Jack smiled faintly before continuing with his story.

"When he did show up, he took me back in time four weeks to Thames House, to see what happened after you..."

"After we confronted the 4-5-6," Ianto inserted gently, and Jack nodded.

"Yeah."

Ianto's expression became guarded as he tried to anticipate how Jack might react to seeing him sell his soul to a spiteful and possessive goddess.

"And did you see?"

Jack lifted Ianto's hand and kissed it lovingly.

"Yes, I did. I saw you make a deal that gives us the chance to be together forever. I love you, Ianto, and nothing will make me feel any different about you."

Ianto leaned in and Jack met him halfway. They were indulging in a slow, languorous kiss when a voice interrupted them.

"Please, you just spent three hours screwing each other's brains out. Enough with the foreplay!"

They parted, but only at the lips. It was obvious that neither man was willing to let go of the other's hand. Dev rolled his eyes in fond exasperation.

"I think it's a given that we all have sex on the brain, but a little self-restraint wouldn't go astray."

"Oh, like you and Samia don't screw every chance you get," Vane snorted as he walked in. Dev looked unamused at the verbal prodding.

"Don't make me bring _your_ sex life into it. How many kids do you have now, wolf?"

"Please!" Ianto interrupted. "You're not discouraging Jack by comparing your sex lives."

Both Were Hunters looked at Jack, and promptly burst out laughing at the lust-blown look in his eyes.

"You'd think he hadn't had any for a century!" Dev snorted. Ianto smiled wryly.

"Jack comes from a different culture. He doesn't view sex in the same way that most humans do."

"I actually come from a different time," Jack explained. When Ianto looked at him in astonishment, Jack shrugged. "We're starting a new life here, right?"

"Right," Ianto agreed, struggling to suppress the surge of joy that rushed through him.

"Well, these are your people now, and I want them to trust me. Hiding things about myself won't help that to happen."

"What do you mean, from a different time?" Vane asked. "And should we be waiting so Ash can hear this as well?"

"I'm already here," Ash said dryly as he walked in. "What should I be hearing?"

"That I was born in a place called Boeshane Peninsula," Jack explained, "on a colony planet in the fifty-first century."

Silence met the declaration. Finally, Ash spoke.

"You're saying you're from the future?"

"And not even from this planet?" Vane asked. Jack nodded.

"Yes, and yes."

"He's telling the truth," Ianto said quickly.

"I know," Ash assured him. "I know. I can tell that much, at least. Jack, can you explain how you came to be here and now?"

"Long story," Jack said ruefully. "Do you want the long version or the short version? Either way, we could be here awhile."

Ash seated himself down.

"We have all night, provided no emergency crops up. Tell us everything you can."

* * *

><p>Over the next four or five hours, Ianto listened in growing awe as Jack related his life story to those present, with a candidness and honesty that Ianto had never before known. He talked about his childhood on Boeshane and the attack that had torn his family apart. He told them about using the war that followed to escape the misery that his home life had become, and convincing his best friend to sign up with him.<p>

No one present could possibly miss the grief and guilt when he told about his friend being tortured and murdered in a failed attempt to break him.

He talked solemnly about joining the Time Agency, and how the respect it earned him on his home world only masked the guilt that continued to eat away at him.

When he told them about waking up one day to discover two years of his memory gone, Ash got a contemplative look on his face, but said nothing.

Then Jack's story reached the time of his meeting the Doctor for the first time. Ianto listened as Jack talked about the time he spent in that Doctor's company, and thought that he could finally understand the love Jack had for the Time Lord.

He talked about the battle of Satellite Five in a subdued voice, and though he took care with his wording, none missed the ache in his voice when he reached the part about waking up to find himself ankle-deep in Dalek dust, and reaching the TARDIS just in time to see her vanish.

"How long did you wait for him to come back?" Aimee asked softly.

"The equivalent of about a month," Jack answered. "That was as long as the food lasted. And I knew by then that he wasn't coming back for me, so I used the teleport and time travel functions on my vortex manipulator and jumped through the vortex to Earth."

"And landed when, exactly?" Ash queried.

"1869. Keep in mind that I didn't realise at the time that I was immortal. I realised I'd missed my intended mark by nearly one hundred and fifty years, and I figured that was it. I was doomed to live out the rest of my life in a technological backwater, so I found a wife and settled down. I knew something was odd when she was ageing, but I didn't seem to be, but it didn't seem to matter when she got sick and died. I decided to go some place where I'd fit in better, here in the US. That was in 1899. I got into a fight on Ellis Island and a man shot me through the heart. I thought it was a bit weird when I woke up, but then it never stopped." Jack paused, recalling the litany of deaths he'd reeled off to the Doctor on Malcassairo. "Beaten, shot, stabbed, trampled by horses, falling off a cliff, World War One and Two... Stray javelin..."

As with the Doctor, everyone in the room cringed, including Ash.

"Well, we've all had crappy lives, so I guess we can sympathise, if nothing else."

"Hey, speak for yourself wolf," Remi growled. Vane ignored him.

"But at least among us Dark Hunters, we've only had to die once. And I'll bet coming back to life is no walk in the roses, either."

"Like being dragged over broken glass," Jack answered soberly, his thoughts straying unwittingly to that year of hell. A hand on his cheek brought him back to reality, and he smiled gratefully at Ianto.

"I think he's a little overqualified to be a squire, Ash," Dev remarked dryly.

"Oh, I think he's perfect to be Ianto's squire," Ash said with a tight smile. "My only question is can he take orders as well as give them?"

"After everything that's happened?" Jack said with a weariness that was all too audible in his voice. "Nothing sounds better than not having to be responsible for making the hard decisions."

Ash nodded. He understood that sentiment only too well.

"Vane, I think I'll take over from here with Ianto. I'll let Eric know that I'll be training Jack, as well. I think Jack's abilities are going to mean a little bit of difference from a squire's typical duties."

Ianto's eyes flashed in warning.

"He's not going to fight unless he absolutely has to. I won't have him used as cannon fodder just because death isn't a permanent state for him."

"Not what I was thinking at all, Ianto," Ash assured him. "He may be immortal, but he has none of the power that comes with being a Dark Hunter." Ash turned a serious gaze on Jack. "You can't go running head-long into a fight the way that you did last night, Jack. You are still human, and Ianto can't be distracted by worrying for you. Do you understand me?"

Jack nodded slowly, meeting Ash's gaze and holding his hand out to shake.

"I understand."

Ash regarded the outstretched hand with immense reluctance. He knew what would happen if he touched Jack. The man would be overwhelmed with lust for him, thanks to the curse his goddess aunt had inflicted on him. On the other hand, he didn't want Jack to think that he was being rejected. Bracing himself for the worst, Ash accepted Jack's hand.

Nothing. There was no gasp from Jack, no flare of lust in the younger man's eyes; absolutely no reaction at all. Instead, Jack immediately turned back to wrap his arms protectively and somewhat possessively around Ianto.

Ash knew he was staring, but he couldn't help it. It was such a rare occurrence, to encounter another living being that wasn't affected by his curse, that it left Ash feeling utterly gobsmacked.

Aware that, with the apparent exception of Jack and Ianto, everyone's attention was on him, Ash stood and clapped his hands together.

"Okay. Ianto and Jack with me. The rest of you, get your lazy asses back to work."

* * *

><p>"Ash, I think Jack needs to meet Simi," Ianto said, once they'd left the confines of Sanctuary. Ash nodded in agreement.<p>

"Simi, come on out."

The Charonte demon emerged from her resting place on Ash's arm and took form in front of them. Given Jack's reaction the evening before, Ash half-expected a panicked response from the human immortal. Instead, Jack regarded Simi with great interest and delight.

"So this is the famous Simi?"

Simi's face lit up.

"Ooh, the Simi is famous?"

"Simi," Ianto said with a wry smile, "this is Jack. I told you about him, remember?"

Simi peered at Jack with equal interest.

"The Simi remembers. You makes my Ianto happy. It's good that you is here now."

Jack smiled softly, easily seeing the great affection that his precious Welsh boy and this gorgeous demon had for each other.

"I came as quickly as I could. I don't want our Ianto to be sad, either."

* * *

><p>Ash's expression was fond as he watched his adopted demon daughter with Jack. Like Ianto, he seemed to know just what to say to get into Simi's good graces. It reassured him that both men seemed to view Simi in the same way as they did anyone else.<p>

"Will Jack come shopping with the Simi too?" Simi asked eagerly. Ash fully expected to see the same raw panic in Jack's face that appeared in the face of every man he'd ever known at the prospect of shopping. He was astonished when Jack's face lit up with almost maniacal delight.

"Oh, Simi, I would _love_ to go shopping with you. Just say when and where, baby, and I'll be there."

"Jack," Ianto warned in a low voice, "flirt with her at your own risk. She's Ash's little girl, and he _will_ find a way to end you permanently."

Jack had no chance to defend himself, though, because he suddenly had Simi wrapped around him like a limpet.

"Simi loves her Jack and Ianto. She promises to protect them from Akri-papa, and from the heifer goddess."

"Artemis?" Jack wondered, and Ash smirked.

"Bingo."

"The heifer goddess made my Akri-papa miserable, until Akra-Tory came along, and now he can be happy again," Simi declared cheerfully.

"All right, Simi, that's enough," Ash murmured, anxious to stop her before she said too much. Looking at Jack, though, he had the sudden suspicion that Jack already knew at least some of his secrets.

"You know," Jack said quietly, "the history of this planet is curious. It goes back further than most humans will ever know. For example, they don't know that humans had quite advanced science and other capabilities very early in their history. Most people believe that only happened after an age of prolonged darkness. You know, like Neanderthal man. The truth is that the age of darkness fell when an angry goddess went berserk and destroyed much of what humans built for themselves. Rumour has it that she was taking revenge for the death of her only son. She sank Atlantis and came pretty close to destroying the whole world."

"How do you know all of that?" Ash asked hoarsely, too stunned to even consider trying to pass off what Jack was saying as fantasy.

"I was there to witness it," Jack answered. "The Time Agency sent me back to that time on a training run, to make sure I could be trusted not to interfere with history when I was on solo missions. I was sent to observe a family... a royal family, at the time of the birth of twin sons."

A chill rushed through Ash at what Jack was saying.

"You saw my life."

Ianto looked back and forth between his lover and his new boss, and spoke with extreme wariness.

"Should I be going off to find a quiet corner and retconning myself?"

Ash lifted an eyebrow.

"Retcon? What's that?"

"It's a memory altering drug," Jack answered. "I developed it based on a Time Agency formula. Maybe we should continue this in private, and you can decide whether or not to... end me."

Ash stared at Jack contemplatively. He conceded to being unnerved that Jack seemed to know so much about him but, if nothing else, his time with Tory had taught him that not all humans were narrow-minded and judgemental.

He saw no judgement in Jack's eyes; only understanding. Then he remembered that horrific flash of memory from Jack, and it occurred to him that maybe, just maybe, this man who called himself Jack Harkness was as close to a kindred spirit he was every likely to find, after his beloved wife.

Ash wanted to trust him. He believed that he could.

"How much do you really know about me?" he asked. He kept just enough of an edge to his voice to ensure Jack knew to be very careful in his reply.

"Your name is Apostolos. It was given to you before you were born by your mother, Apollymi. You were cursed by the three Fates and your father, Archon, decreed that you had to die in order to ensure the survival of your pantheon which, by the way, made the Greek pantheon look like kiddies playing with matches. To save you, your mother sent you to be born of a human mother, and to live among humans as one of us until you were old enough to receive your god powers and defend yourself."

Jack said no more, for which Ash was infinitely grateful. He glanced at Ianto, and wasn't sure whether to be confused or relieved when he saw nothing but thoughtful consideration on the other's face.

"You said you were there when my mother almost destroyed the world," Ash said carefully.

Jack nodded.

"I was there when you were born, masquerading as a servant, and I saw how they reacted to you. They should have been honoured to have such a child given to them for safe-keeping, but instead they saw it as a curse. I wanted to go back, and I managed to talk my supervisor into letting me, but it had to be to a different point in your life. As it happened, I arrived just in time to witness your death at Apollo's hands, and everything that happened afterwards."

Ash frowned deeply.

"You were on Atlantis when Apollymi sank it. How did you escape?"

Instinctively, Jack reached for his wrist, only to remember he no longer had his manipulator. Sighing faintly, he resorted reluctantly to a verbal explanation.

"I used to have something called a vortex manipulator. It allowed me to travel through time, and to teleport as well. I used it to evacuate myself."

"You could have saved people," Ash said in a low, dangerous voice. It was a tone that had sent terror through the hardiest Dark Hunters, but Jack never flinched.

"I couldn't interfere. As much as I wanted to – and I did want to – the one person I might have chosen to save could have done irreparable harm to future time lines. I really wanted to help, but I couldn't interfere and you know it."

Ash shut his eyes. Yes, he knew. He didn't like it, but he knew. When he opened his eyes again, he focused a hard look on both men.

"Aside from Tory, no one else knew the truth about me before now. I'd like to keep it that way."

"Because when people find out the truth," Jack said softly, "they see you in a different light, and not always for the better. All of a sudden, you're no longer the person they've known for years. Suddenly, you're a freak that they don't know how to deal with, and sooner or later, discomfort turns to resentment, and resentment turns to hatred."

Ash felt that icy cold feeling in his gut start to ease.

"You do understand," he said in a less harsh tone.

"Yeah. I do. And so does Ianto. We will never tell anyone what we know about you."

Ash believed it. He regarded the two men with a small but genuine smile.

"You two are something special, that's for sure. Now, how about we get some training in before dawn?"

* * *

><p>"This is all yours?" Jack asked, looking around the estate in amazement. Ianto smiled at Jack's visible awe. He had to admit, he understood his lover's shock. When Ash had taken him to the estate for the first time, and told him it was his if he wanted it, Ianto had been gobsmacked. He dreamt of owning a house, but this was literally a case of being handed the keys to the castle on a silver platter.<p>

The place wasn't quite as big as some that were owned by Dark Hunters, but it was big enough for Ianto's tastes. With five bedrooms, two of which had ensuites; three bathrooms; a triple garage; the biggest kitchen Ianto had ever seen in a residential home; and best of all, an enormous hot tub out on the back patio, there was more than enough luxury to keep Ianto comfortable and happy.

"Yep," Ianto answered, when he realised that Jack's question hadn't been rhetorical, and that he was actually waiting for an answer. "Courtesy of Ash."

There was a time, Ianto mused, when such a statement would have resulted either in sending Jack into a jealous sulk, or all manner of lewd suggestions. It was telling that now, Jack just nodded in easy acceptance. In fact, Ianto realised as he watched Jack take in the sights, that it seemed as though the weight of responsibility that had been squarely on Jack's shoulders for so long was almost entirely gone. It warmed his now perpetually cold body to see Jack more or less carefree for once.

He had to admit, he'd been sceptical at how easily Jack would be able to put aside the mantle of leader. In all honesty, he hadn't truly believed Jack could do it, but his lover had surprised him. Jack had not merely put it aside; he'd thrown it off with relish.

It was as though Jack was a whole new man, and it was thrilling for Ianto to witness the dramatic change.

"So, you gonna show me the bedroom?" Jack asked, interrupting Ianto's musings with a leer.

"You're insatiable," Ianto said with a wry smile.

Jack grinned.

"You wouldn't want me any other way."

Ianto smiled fondly.

"True. Seriously, though, do you understand what you're required to do, as my squire?"

Jack answered with a nod.

"I think so. I'm supposed to keep you safe during the day, and do whatever you need me to do during the night."

"And you're really okay with this? Taking orders, and not being in charge?"

"Ianto, I'm more than okay with it. One, it lets me be with you. Two, I'm not the one who has to make the hard choices anymore. How could I not be happy about that?"

"I suppose it's just that I've never seen you as anything but the big boss," Ianto conceded. "It's hard to picture you in a subservient role."

Jack grinned and opened his mouth to speak, only to be cut off by Ianto.

"Shut it. Role playing is one thing. This is real life. Technically, I'm supposed to be your boss now. It's complete turn-about, Jack. I have to admit that I'm a little thrown by it."

As Ianto spoke, the look on Jack's face became guarded.

"Do you regret me coming here?" he asked. Ianto blinked, and then dismay filled his expression as realised how Jack was interpreting his anxieties.

"No! God, Jack, no! I was never as happy as when you turned up two nights ago. I love you, you silly fool, and I want you with me, so don't you dare even think about walking away. Do you hear me?"

As Ianto watched, Jack visibly relaxed and he smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry. I guess it's still sinking in that I haven't lost you after all."

"Not only have you not lost me, but as long as I'm careful, you'll have me forever."

For Ianto, the joy that lit up Jack's face at that reminder was akin to receiving all of his favourite Christmas presents at once. They moved as easily into each other's arms, and Ianto marvelled again at Jack's willing submission.

"You're the only one," Jack whispered.

"The only one what?" Ianto asked, puzzled.

"The only one I couldn't let go," Jack admitted. "I meant it when I promised never to forget you, because out of everyone I've ever loved, you're the one loss I couldn't accept."

"Sappy," Ianto murmured, but he was touched at the same time. Jack huffed against his shoulder.

"Yeah, well, I owe you a lifetime of sappy. I promise you, Ianto, you will never have reason again to doubt that I love you."

A warm smile filled Ianto's face.

"I believe you. And the same goes for me, cariad. We have a chance to start over, and we aren't going to waste it."

* * *

><p><em> To be continued...<em>


	8. An Unexpected Arrival

Gwen Cooper stepped off the plane in New Orleans, and took a moment to stretch the kinks out of her body. It had been an excruciatingly long flight, and the stress had been compounded by her less than amicable parting from Rhys.

Oh, he wasn't especially upset at her running off after Jack. Surprisingly, he seemed to understand her need to find him, make him see sense and bring him home. He'd made it pretty clear that he didn't agree with her, but he understood.

No, what had really gotten him off-side was that she was going off on a potentially dangerous wild goose chase while nearly ten weeks pregnant.

She understood where he was coming from. She really did, and she thought it was sweet that he was already feeling so paternal. In the end, though, his arguments fell on deaf ears. She had to do this. She had to find Jack and bring him home, and make him reinstate her as a Torchwood operative. He would see reason, one way or another, she was going to make certain of it. If he didn't? Well, the consequences would be his fault, and his alone.

Rhys had been fuming over it, and that was something of an understatement. Why, he had demanded, could she not just sign up to join UNIT, if she had to continue with the alien catching rubbish. At least UNIT was an official and legitimate organisation, and she might be a lot safer with them than with Torchwood.

In reply, Gwen had patted his hand condescendingly and told him that Torchwood did far more important work than UNIT, and she simply wouldn't feel fulfilled there. What she couldn't bring herself to tell him was that she had contacted UNIT in the days after Jack's formal disbanding of Torchwood, only to be told she wasn't the type of person that UNIT needed at that time. She'd reminded them of her experience with Torchwood, and was told that was partly what they meant. The other part apparently had something to do with her personality, but she'd chosen to disregard that little slight.

When the UNIT General came to see her a week or so back, asking if she'd be willing to help them track down Jack and bring him in, she had readily agreed.

He was needed, the General had told her confidentially in a dimly lit corner of her favourite pub some time before midnight. Some of his colleagues didn't necessarily agree, but that didn't change the fact one iota. When she'd admitted that she didn't know where he'd gone, the General had assured her that that wasn't a problem. He knew exactly where Jack could be found. The issue was that he had apparently fallen in with some disreputable people, and the General didn't want to do anything that might startle Jack into doing another disappearing act.

Gwen felt reassured that the General... what was his name again? Stryker, that was it. She felt reassured that General Stryker was genuinely concerned that Jack be brought in for his own good, but it didn't hurt that he'd also offered to pay for all her expenses in exchange for her help. Even though she couldn't recall anyone from UNIT by the name of Stryker, she didn't doubt his legitimacy. After all, she'd never really had that much to do with UNIT. Jack had always been the one to deal with them any other such agencies, and in the months that Jack had been gone, she'd allowed Ianto to liaison.

Oh, it wasn't that she couldn't have done it. She'd just felt that it was good experience for Ianto, and it helped to make the poor boy feel like he was actually contributing something more than a broom and the occasional cup of admittedly sinfully good coffee.

Now, though, working with UNIT was a necessity for her, and she quietly hoped that it would prove to them that she was _exactly_ the type of person they needed.

She was through Customs fairly quickly, having nothing to declare, and soon found a delectable looking man waiting with a placard with her name on it. She approached with a seductive smile that she couldn't quite suppress. Jack bloody Harkness's influence, she thought with only moderate aggravation.

"Hiya, I'm Gwen Cooper," she announced, and couldn't help preening a little when the man's gaze swept up and down her body in a blatant show of checking her out. Oh yeah, even pregnant she still had it.

Her mind stubbornly refused to wonder why, if she was so attractive to men, was Jack still resisting her.

"This way," the man told her abruptly, and took off at such a fast stride that she had to jog to keep up.

"Where are we going?" she asked as she caught him up.

"I have instructions to take you to your hotel, so you can get a few hours sleep before night time."

Gwen couldn't stop the disappointment that filled her.

"I thought I'd be going straight to find Jack," she admitted.

"I believe you'll find instructions regarding that in your hotel room. General Stryker has had Captain Harkness under limited surveillance. He's made up a list for you of likely places where you'll find him."

She nodded thoughtfully. That would be useful, of course, but why wait until night? She asked much the same question of her driver, and he flashed her a grin that left her feeling strangely unsettled.

"Trust us, Miss Cooper. Captain Harkness doesn't surface during the day all that often now. He mostly conducts his business at night. We believe he's working for a man who only ever comes out at night."

Gwen snorted. The night activities bit was easy to believe. Working for someone else? Not so much. Still, she herself had no leads and no ideas, and until she did she may as well follow Stryker's instructions.

* * *

><p>The list, she discovered when she arrived at her hotel room, consisted of just one lowly name – Sanctuary, along with an instruction to stake it out until Jack turned up. Sanctuary, she discovered after some searching on the internet, was a bar in the rough end of town. It wasn't really her scene, but it wouldn't be the first time she'd made sacrifices for Jack. It would just be one more to add to the list of favours that he owed her.<p>

According to her personal tally, that list was quite long now, and she had every intention of making Jack pay up sooner, rather than later.

* * *

><p>Night came, and Gwen found her way to Sanctuary, where a man easily as sexy as Jack let her in. A sultry look and seriously plumped cleavage certainly didn't hurt, either, she thought with a hint of triumph as she entered the bar.<p>

Whatever she'd expected, Sanctuary was nothing like it. Though lit only with low lighting, the place was clean, not especially noisy and generally lacked the overly masculine atmosphere that she'd come to expect from most pubs and clubs. Not to mention, the males on the staff were all unbelievably gorgeous.

Maybe, just maybe, she might take the chance and have a go at getting one of them into bed. Rhys need never know.

A sharp pang of guilt swept through her. What was she thinking? She was married, and pregnant, for god's sake! Slightly shaken by the shameful deviation her thought process had taken, Gwen renewed her focus on the set task, to find Jack and bring him home.

* * *

><p>"Hooker alert, table eight," Wren muttered as he joined Dev, Fang and Aimee at the bar. Aimee lifted an eyebrow as she passed him a beer.<p>

"You, of all people, ought to know better than to judge on appearance."

Wren shrugged unapologetically.

"If it looks like a hooker, walks like a hooker..."

"Smells like a hooker," Dev added with a smirk. "I don't know what perfume she's wearing, but it reeks. She can think about getting laid all she likes, but it won't be with anyone in this place. Not while she's doused in that crap."

"She's pregnant, too," Fang stated bluntly, "and married, if that tan line on her ring finger is any indication." He paused, then wrinkled his nose. "And she's been in contact with daimons. I can smell them on her. It's not strong, but it's there."

"Aimee, go and take her order," Dev murmured. "See if you can find out who she is, at least."

Looking a little perturbed at being used in that way, Aimee nevertheless headed across to talk to the newcomer. She came back nearly fifteen minutes later, looking for the world like she wanted to turn bear and chow down on someone's head.

"Next time, one of you can go talk to her," Aimee grumbled. "Silly woman doesn't know when to stop talking. In the midst of a whole lot of babble, I managed to work out that she's here looking for Jack."

"Jack, as in Ianto's squire?" Dev echoed in surprise. "What would she want with him?"

"You think she's his wife?" Wren wondered, and all of them grimaced at the thought.

"Married and pregnant?" Fang retorted. "Ianto'll have his balls on a plate."

"She's married," Aimee clarified with a withering look at Fang, "but not to Jack. Her name is Gwen Cooper, and her husband's name is Rhys. She said she was just wanting to catch up with an old friend, but Jack's face was a pretty clear image in her mind, and she isn't exactly thinking warm fuzzies about him."

Dev grunted.

"So, we have a woman who is looking for one of the Dark Hunter squires, and has been in contact – either knowingly or unknowingly – with daimons. I don't know that we need to contact Ash Yet, but we definitely need to warn Ianto and Jack."

"Oh fuck, too late," Fang muttered, and they all looked to see Jack walk into Sanctuary with a hyper-excited Simi at his side, talking a mile a minute. Jack, they couldn't help but notice, was laden with shopping bags and had an indulgent smile on his face as he listened to her chatter.

"Simi's found someone who is not only willing to go shopping with her," Dev said dryly, "but who loves to shop almost as much as she does. Poor, delusional bastard."

"Never mind that," Aimee growled, swatting her brother hard on the arm. "Get over there and warn him, before she sees him!"

"Again, too late," Fang said.

Sure enough, the woman had spotted Jack, and was now headed straight for him.

"On the bright side," Fang said with a shrug," "if she gives him any grief, Simi'll just eat her."

Dev grimaced as he realised how right Fang was. If there was one thing Simi hated (and there were many things, actually, but that was beside the point), it was people who caused trouble for those select few that she had dubbed 'quality peoples'. Jack and Ianto definitely fell into that category.

"I'm gonna call Ash," he told them. "Keep an eye on things. Homicides are a bitch to clean up."

* * *

><p>Jack deposited the bags he'd been carrying with some relief. He'd thoroughly enjoyed going shopping with Simi – and he'd only needed to remind her twice that she couldn't eat the salespeople – but he had to admit to being astounded by the amount of stuff she'd bought. It was almost enough to furnish a room, and when he'd pointed that out, Simi had cheerfully answered that it was okay, that Akri-Papa would just build her another one.<p>

It never occurred to Jack to doubt that.

"The Simi has had a good day," she announced happily.

"So have I," Jack confirmed warmly. "I'm glad your Akri let me take you shopping."

"You is quality peoples, Jacky," Simi told him, throwing her arms around him in a ferocious hug. Jack returned it with equal enthusiasm, utterly charmed by the charismatic demon with a child's personality. Ash was by no means the only one she had wrapped around her proverbial little finger.

"I love you, too, Simi. Now, why don't you go and tell Aimee what you want to eat?"

Her face lit up at the mention of food, and she flew off towards the bar with an eagerness that was almost frightening. Jack watched her go with a fond smile that was wiped clean off his face with a familiar and most unwelcome figure entered his line of sight.

"Gwen," he said tonelessly as the Welshwoman approached and sat down uninvited. "That seat's taken."

She regarded him with a shrewd look that, once upon a time, might have caused him to squirm a little. Not anymore, though.

"Aren't you glad to see me, Jack?" she asked. "After all, I came all this way just for you."

"No," he answered bluntly. "You came all this way just for yourself. I suppose I can't blame you for that, though God knows how you knew where to find me. Now that you have, I'll thank you to take yourself out of here, get the first plane home and don't come back."

He was not the least bit surprised when she made no effort to move.

"You've changed your look," she commented, looking him up and down with a level of scrutiny that left him feeling uncomfortable and just a touch dirty. It also didn't escape his attention how long her gaze lingered on his crotch. "I think I prefer your old clothes. They make you stand out more."

"I don't want to stand out," he said tersely. "Damn it, Gwen, why are you here?"

"I'm here to bring you home, Jack. Look, I appreciate that you're still grieving over Ianto, and I admit I was being insensitive to simply show up making demands, but it doesn't change the fact that there is still a rift in Cardiff."

"No," Jack cut her off sharply. "There's no rift anymore. When the bomb went off inside me, the explosion combined with the vortex energy inside me and sealed the rift closed. It won't be opened again, not in your lifetime."

Gwen sat still, and Jack fancied that he could almost see the wheels turning in her mind, as she processed the implications of that revelation.

"Well, Torchwood is still needed," she argued. "The 4-5-6 never came through the rift. There could be others..."

"Let UNIT deal with them," Jack said dismissively. "I'm tired of it, Gwen. I'm tired of being the one who always has to make the shit decisions. Let someone else do it now. I'm staying here, and you're going to go home to your husband."

"You don't have to be in charge," she persisted. "I could do that! I led the team when you were gone, I could take charge again!"

Jack glared half-heartedly at her. He was sorely tempted to call Simi over and let the Charonte demon chow down on the stubborn woman. It was only knowing that Ash would kick his ass into the next dimension that stopped him.

"Gwen, when I came back that time, you didn't even know what UNIT was!"

She looked more than a little put-out at the accusation.

"I said I got mixed up with all the alien investigation agencies."

Jack uttered an incredulous laugh.

"How many do you think there are? There was only Torchwood and UNIT. That was it! Ianto was right, you never did bother with reading the Torchwood charter, or the manual. I accept that was my fault, but what I can't understand is why, when you're the one who always argued and never followed procedure, why are you the one who always managed to escape unscathed?"

"That's not fair, Jack," Gwen said tensely. "Tosh and Owen's deaths hurt me as much as they did you."

Jack was about to concede to her on that point when something struck.

"Only Tosh and Owen? Not Ianto as well?"

At least she had the decency to look embarrassed at her faux pas, Jack thought bitterly.

"Well, of course, I meant Ianto as well," she stammered. "But really, Jack, you can't just stay here and wallow. You need to do something meaningful again." She reached across and grasped his hands tightly, not letting him pull away. "You need to come home, Jack. Help me to rebuild Torchwood. Ianto would want you to do it."

"Ianto bloody well would not."

Jack didn't know whether to laugh or weep as Ianto appeared before Gwen. Laughter won out when Gwen turned so fast that she fell off her chair. Ever the gentleman, Ianto offered her a hand, but she scrambled away from him in a panic.

"Simi brought Yan to help with the heifer woman," Simi informed Jack matter-of-factly, looking immensely pleased with herself. Jack only managed to suppress a further outburst of laughter when Ianto shot him a mildly threatening look.

"What is going on?" Gwen choked out. "Jack? Talk to me, Jack. Tell me what's going on. Why isn't Ianto dead? It is Ianto, isn't it? Jack?"

She was heading rapidly towards hysteria. Sighing, Jack grabbed her by the upper arms and yanked her none-too-gently to her feet.

"Shut up right now, or I swear I'll let Simi eat you, and to hell with what Ash thinks."

"You can't threaten that, Jack," Ianto said with a roll of his eyes. "Pregnant, remember?"

Jack barely restrained himself from making an inappropriately sarcastic remark. As it was, he was already contemplating how many different ways Ash was going to kill him. After all, no one else from Ianto's past was supposed to find out that he was still alive. Or, alive again. Or whatever.

"I'm going to ask you a question," Jack told her in a low, threatening voice that he hadn't had to use for a long time, "and you'd damn well better answer. How did you know to come here?"

Gwen glanced away from Jack, towards Ianto, but he remained passive and silent. His black eyes watched with deceptive detachment. Her breath caught. Ianto had brown eyes, not black...

"Gwen!" Jack snapped, and she gasped in fright. This was not going at all the way she'd planned it, and now she was starting to wonder whether Jack had somehow been brainwashed by a shape-shifting monster that had stolen Ianto's form.

"Jack," she whispered in burgeoning panic, "come with me. I can help you, but you need to come now. Please, before it's too late! Can't you see? That's not Ianto! It's just some... _thing_ with his body. Come with me, please!"

Jack pulled away from her, quickly becoming conscious of the scene they were making. Luckily, they were in a fairly secluded corner of the bar, and the only other patrons so far were a handful of Weres who had no interest in the proceedings.

"That is Ianto, Gwen, whether you want to accept it or not, and no, I won't be explaining to you why he isn't dead. And don't you dare say you have a right to know. You forfeited that right when you showed how willing you were to emotionally blackmail me over Ianto."

"I'm sorry about that!" Gwen choked out. "I was upset! Ianto was my friend, too!"

"Was, being the key word there," Ianto said flatly. "Gwen, I don't know how you came to find us, but I suggest you leave now and don't come back. Jack is not going back to Torchwood, and neither am I."

"Jack, please!" Gwen begged, only to shriek when a pair of enormous hands clamped down on her shoulders and manhandled her towards the exit.

"Let's go, lady," Quin said in a bored drawl. "You've worn out your welcome."

"Jack!" Gwen cried out, even as she was marched unceremoniously towards the door. "Help me!"

"I'd better go see her on her way," Jack said ruefully. "Maybe take her to a diner for a coffee..."

Ianto's gaze dropped to the two innocuous white pills in Jack's hand.

"Retcon?"

"Yeah. It's the last of it. This'll clean her memory right back to around the time that she turned up on Alice's doorstep. She won't remember anything beyond me revoking her clearance."

Ianto felt uneasy, but he knew it had to be done. More to the point, Jack was the only one who could do it.

"Go on, cariad, but don't take long. I have a very bad feeling about this."

"So do I," Jack admitted. "I'm going to try and find out who clued her in over where to find me, and then I'm going to retcon her and dump her back at the airport. I'll be a couple of hours at the most."

Ianto watched him go in worried silence, chewing lightly on his lip. He was so busy worrying himself about how Jack was going to deal with this latest problem that he barely noticed when Dev slid into the seat beside him.

"You need to chill, kid. Jack's just doing what he's supposed to do as your squire, dealing with the crap."

A tiny smile quirked the corner of Ianto's lips. He felt mildly guilty for thinking it, but he couldn't keep from thinking it was quite an apt description.

"I wouldn't be so worried," he admitted, "but this is Gwen Cooper we're talking about."

"You've never mentioned her," Dev pointed out. "I take it she was either someone who didn't mean a whole lot to you, or she betrayed you in some way and you didn't want to rehash the memories."

Ianto smiled wearily. It was a reasonable assumption on Dev's part. After all, every Dark Hunter in existence – with the singular possible exception of himself – had been born of a life of torment and betrayal. It was a natural assumption that Gwen might have been a harbinger of betrayal for him, that he had been so careful not only to avoid talking about her, but also not to think of her.

"She was my friend," Ianto corrected him. "She was a good friend, even if she did have a tendency to be overbearing. But no one's perfect, right?"

"Very true. Seems like that's ancient history now."

"Obviously, given my current circumstances," Ianto said dryly, and Dev chuckled appreciatively. "There's no need to worry, though. Jack is going to retcon her. He'll wipe the last month or so from her memory and in a few hour's time, she'll wake up at the airport, not knowing where she is or how she came to be there. I just hope Jack can find out who clued her in to where to find him, and why. If it really was UNIT, then I want to know what they want with him."

"They won't get him, Ianto," Dev reassured him. "We look after our own, and Ash will go postal on anyone who tries to do anything to him. Believe me, Simi will guarantee that."

Ianto knew Dev was right, but that didn't keep the worries from gnawing at him.

"Gwen joined Torchwood almost by accident," he explained. "Jack retconned her once, but she broke through it. Personally, I don't think Jack gave her the right dose, but he wouldn't ever admit to that. Also, even if that's true, there's no way of knowing whether it was deliberate on his part or not. Anyway, she apparently witnessed Jack die and then resurrect, and he chose to give her a job rather than try retconning her again. He got it into his head that she had a human perspective that the rest of us were lacking, and he had a tendency to fawn over her to start with. She didn't take long for that to go to her head, unfortunately. Don't get me wrong, with a bit of time and experience, she was good at the job... when she actually listened to Jack. The biggest problem she had was that she started to believe she knew better than Jack, and she became openly defiant if she disagreed with him. It also didn't help that she seemed to think there was some sort of unrequited love between them."

Dev snorted with laughter.

"That _is_ funny."

"Not so long ago, it wasn't. Jack _was_ attracted to her, and he made no secret of it. The CCTV footage of him teaching her to shoot was borderline pornographic. I think the only thing that kept him from making a move on her was the fact that she already had a long-term boyfriend." Ianto shook his head in bemusement. "For all his fifty-first century attitudes to sex and labels, Jack is quite old-fashioned in his attitude towards relationships. As near as I can tell, he has never tried to intrude on an established relationship. I don't think Gwen ever really understood that that was the reason that he never made a serious attempt to bed her."

"You think you were some sort of consolation prize to him?" Dev wondered. "Because I really don't think that's true, kid."

A small smile graced Ianto's face.

"I used to think that, and I tried to convince myself that it didn't matter, except it did matter."

"And now?"

"I was never second choice," Ianto said with confidence. "Jack loves me. Whatever he might feel for Gwen... or for anyone else that he's loved throughout his life... won't change that. I've learnt to accept that Jack is capable of loving more than one person at a time. I consider myself blest that now he chooses to be with me, over and above any others."

Dev smiled wryly.

"You may be the first Dark Hunter philosopher, my young friend."

Ianto grinned, but that grin was wiped off his face an instant later when Eric charged into the bar.

"Daimons!" he yelled, looking around in a panic. "They're attacking Jack! He needs help, they're tearing him to pieces out there!"

Ianto was out the door before anyone else had a chance to move.

* * *

><p><em>to be continued<em>...


	9. Truth & Manipulation

Warning: not Gwen-friendly.

* * *

><p>It took Jack no effort whatsoever to catch up with Gwen, given that she was engaged in a fierce argument with Quin, who was looking more irritated by the minute. Stepping around the bear, Jack clapped him lightly on the shoulder.<p>

"It's okay, Quin. I'll deal with this."

Quin nodded amiably.

"Be my guest. I was just about to chow down on her head."

Jack barely suppressed a smirk. Little did Gwen realise how serious Quin was. He walked towards her and grabbed her forcefully by the arm, hauling her away from Sanctuary.

"Jack, you're hurting me!" she cried out as he pulled her along. "Stop!"

"Just move," he snapped. "I want you as far away from Sanctuary as possible."

"All right! I'll go! But I want you to come with me."

When he gave her no answer, Gwen halted and yanked her arm ferociously out of his grip.

"Damn it, Jack, I'm scared for you. Can't you see that?"

What made it so hard was that he could see it. He knew she was genuine in her concern and it helped to soften his ire, just a little.

"I know," he conceded, "but it isn't necessary, Gwen."

"Not necessary? For God's sake, Jack, you've been conned into thinking that... that _thing_ back there is Ianto, and you think I shouldn't be worried? Please, Jack, let me help you. Come home with me, before it's too late."

Something in her tone set him on edge, like a warning he didn't quite comprehend. He peered at her in the darkness, trying to work out what it was that she wasn't telling him.

"Gwen," he said carefully, acutely aware that they were standing right out in the open, "how about we go and get a coffee, and we'll talk about this. Okay? Just the two of us."

He supposed that, in hindsight, he should have known better. Gwen had many traits, and one was a very sharp mind. From the narrowing of her eyes, he knew she'd seen the ploy for what it was.

"And then what?" she demanded to know. "You slip a couple of retcon into my drink? It didn't work before, Jack. Why do you think it would work now?"

For once, Jack felt completely guiltless.

"It worked. Any level of retcon can be overcome with the right triggers. Trust me when I say I'll be more careful this time."

"I am not going to let you retcon me!" Gwen burst out. "Damn you, Jack, don't you understand? I came here to save you!"

"And I'm telling you that I don't need saving!" Jack yelled right back.

For a brief moment, he saw real grief in her expression. Then it faded, and she spoke in a flat, emotionless voice.

"I tried. I really did. What happens now is entirely on your head, Jack."

He stepped back from her, that sense of dread growing exponentially in the pit of his stomach.

"Gwen, what have you done?"

"Her duty, and not too shabbily, either, for a pathetic human."

Both Jack and Gwen looked around at the newcomer with equal measures of dread and hopeful anticipation.

"Stryker," Jack said flatly. "It is Stryker, right? Son of Apollo, leader of the daimons?"

"What are you talking about?" Gwen snapped impatiently. "This is General Stryker from UNIT."

"There _is_ no General Stryker from UNIT, Gwen," Jack said with an exasperation that was tempered with a gnawing fear. Whilst he had no reason to fear death at the hands of daimons, he knew well enough of the power that they had to steal the souls of victims and he had no desire to test out his regenerative abilities after such an attack.

"Of course there is," Gwen argued. "You've dealt with him before..."

"You've been manipulated," Jack told her. "He played you, and you did everything he needed you to do."

Gwen looked across at Stryker in confusion that turned to fear at the evil grin he favoured her with.

"I'm afraid he is right. I'm not with UNIT, but fortunately your ignorance and your sheer desperation to get your hands on _him_ made it easy for me to fool you."

"What do you want, Stryker?" Jack demanded, his hand straying to the handle of his sword, ready to be extended at an instant's notice. The leader of the daimons looked amused.

"Aside from the obvious, do you mean? You're something new, Jack. A different kind of immortal. Unlike even the gods, you can't be killed. I'm really interested to see whether that handy little talent will pass over to me when I feed on you and take your soul. You see, Jacky boy, you might be exactly what I need to kill all the gods once and for all."

"It doesn't work like that, Stryker," Jack warned him. "You can drain me as many times as you like, and I'll just keep coming back; but no matter what you do or how you do it, you can't have what it is that keeps bringing me back. No one can take it. Not you, not anyone. Believe me, they've tried."

Stryker shrugged.

"Hey, I'm willing to experiment. Take him."

Jack had his sword out in the blink of an eye and swung it around in a wide arc to remove the heads of three daimons that appeared out of nowhere to converge on him. They exploded into dust in his face, leaving him momentarily blinded for a few precious seconds. He started to fight instinctively when he felt hands on his arms, only to stop at Gwen's familiar voice.

"It's me, Jack. Tell me what to do. How do we kill them?"

He wiped the dust from his eyes, managing to clear his vision, and pulled a semi-automatic from where it had been holstered snugly under his shoulder. It had never been used in battle, but Jack had learned from the other squires over the last month that it was important to always be prepared. The sword was elegant, but having a gun as back-up was definitely preferable. It was that which he now handed to Gwen.

"Aim for the heart. This will put a hole in their chest, but make sure you get the heart. Miss that, and it won't matter how big the hole is."

Gwen took the weapon and released the safety, priming it to fire.

"They're not human, are they?"

"No, so don't be suckered into thinking they are. Just take out as many as you can."

He barely had a chance to finish speaking before the next wave of daimons were on them, and right away Jack knew that they had no chance. The number of daimons Stryker had summoned was even greater than those that had attacked Ianto on the night they'd been reunited. He therefore had two priorities – keeping Gwen and her unborn child safe, and ensuring Stryker didn't take him. Both tasks were going to be one hell of a tall order.

A brief glance revealed what he had feared. His gun was no match for the sheer number of daimons converging on them. At the very most, Gwen was only able to slow them down and would be in serious trouble once the ammunition was gone. They needed help, fast.

"Ianto!" Jack howled, hoping against hope that Ianto's new talents would allow him to hear the cry for help. Whether or not Ianto could hear, Jack had no idea. What he did see, though, was Eric, who was watching the unfolding scene with a look of horror on his face. The two men locked stares briefly, and Eric nodded once before taking off at a frantic run back in the direction of Sanctuary.

Jack's last thought before the daimons converged en masse, and began to tear him to shreds, was that help would soon be on its way.

* * *

><p>Ianto was almost flying by the time he reached the scene of the fight, although classifying it as a fight suggested more than just one side participating. Gwen had Jack's sword and was swinging it ineffectually at a group of daimons that were taking great delight in taunting her, while Jack...<p>

His breath caught in his throat. Jack was pinned to the ground by several daimons who were tearing into him with a nauseating enthusiasm. Drawing his own sword, he started forward, only to be brought up short by a powerful hand on his shoulder.

"I think you'd better let me deal with this," Ash said grimly. "You're no match for Stryker."

As much as it galled him, Ianto knew Ash spoke the truth.

"So what do we do?"

"I'll deal with Stryker and his cronies. You grab the woman. Simi will get Jack." Ash lifted a hand and all of a sudden he held an ancient-looking staff that fairly vibrated in Ash's powerful grip. "Be ready to move. You'll know when."

Ianto watched in breathless anxiety as Ash charged into the unsuspecting throng of daimons, most of whom scattered like the cowards they really were. Those who didn't flee were either new to the daimon ranks and didn't know enough to flee, or they were too busy gorging themselves on Jack to notice. Stryker, for his part, was visibly livid at the interruption.

"No! No, damn it, that's not fair! Why the fuck can't you stay away for once?"

"Call them off right now," Ash demanded, in no mood to play word games with Stryker. "Get your daimon asses back to Kalosis and don't ever think about coming after Jack again. Do you hear me, Stryker? If you try this again, I swear that the next time I see you, I will let Simi and her entire family eat you alive. Do you hear me?"

Stryker's eyes narrowed.

"You've never made a threat like that before, even for that little human bitch you married. What's so special about him, then? Aside from the obvious, of course."

Ash lifted his staff.

"You've got three seconds before I obliterate your ranks."

Stryker sneered.

"Just you, against all of us? You're in over your head, Acheron. Daimons, attack!"

All the remaining daimons converge on Ash at once, leaving Gwen and Jack momentarily unchecked. Ianto didn't hesitate. He flew across the ground and snatched up Gwen before she could so much as squeak. In the split second before he teleported them both back to the safety of Sanctuary, he caught sight of Simi gathering Jack's battered and bleeding body up in her arms. Then, everything blurred into an instant of blackness, until his vision cleared again to reveal he was back in Sanctuary.

"Ianto, are you all right?" Aimee asked anxiously as he sat Gwen down forcefully in the nearest chair.

"I'm okay. Jack, though..."

"Simi just arrived with him upstairs. You might want to get up there, he's in a bad way."

"Watch her until Ash gets here?" he asked Aimee in a low voice. "Don't let her wander."

"Don't worry, hon. She's not going anywhere."

Ianto left the room without a backward glance.

"Well," Aimee said coldly to Gwen as she walked around to get a good look at the other woman. "You've really managed to fuck yourself over well and truly. I just hope for your sake that you didn't deliberately lead Jack into a daimon ambush, because if you did, then that baby you're carrying will be the only thing saving your worthless ass."

Gwen looked up at Aimee tearfully.

"I thought I was helping him. I didn't know that would happen, I swear it."

"Helping him?" Aimee echoed incredulously. "How could you ever think that what you did was helping him?"

"I needed to get him away from that... that _thing_ pretending to be Ianto!" Gwen exploded.

"Oh, you sorry, deluded fool," Aimee said with a shake of her head. "You don't get it, do you? That _is _Ianto."

"That's impossible. Ianto died. I saw his body. He's dead, and Jack should..."

"Jack should what?" Aimee asked darkly. Gwen looked away as realisation sank in that she wasn't going to be able to make this woman see the situation from her perspective.

"Nothing."

Aimee snorted.

"Hardly. I can smell it, you know. We all can. The moment you first walked into Sanctuary, we smelled the lust on you. The only reason you want Jack to go back with you is because you want him. Well, guess what? He's not yours to have."

Gwen's jaw tightened as she glared at the tabletop.

"You don't know Jack like I do. He needs me."

"Honey, even if that was true, what you did tonight will have well and truly put an end to all of that."

"You'll see," Gwen said stubbornly.

"She'll see what?"

Both women turned, and Gwen launched herself to her feet.

"Jack! You're all right!"

Jack positively glowered as he entered the kitchen slowly, with Ianto, Simi and Ash close behind him. When Gwen reached towards him, he slapped her hands away.

"Don't touch me. Just sit down."

When she made me no effort to move, Simi advanced on her menacingly.

"Sit down, heifer lady, or the Simi'll go gets her barbeque sauce."

At the sight of Simi's fangs, Gwen sat down with a thud. Once she was seated, Simi turned her attention back to Acheron.

"Akri-papa, can the Simi go clean up the dead daimons that didn't get dusted?"

Ash smiled wryly. He knew full well that by 'clean up', Simi really meant could she go eat the remains.

"I don't know how much is left, baby, but have at it."

With a happy squeal, she vanished in a flash of light, causing Gwen to utter a small scream. Acting as though nothing untoward had just taken place, though, Jack sat down opposite Gwen. He was moving slowly, as though every little movement was agony. He was horribly pale, with dark circles under his eyes. His appearance was not dissimilar to how he'd looked after his encounter with Abaddon. He looked awful, and he knew it.

"Okay," he said in a quiet, strained voice, "the only reason you are still in one piece is because you fought beside me when the attack started. The only reason your memories are still intact is because we need to know what you know about why Stryker wanted me." He stared at her darkly. "You owe me an answer, Gwen, so start talking."

"Okay," she conceded. "I'll talk to you, and only you. Everyone else has to leave."

Ash walked around, then, and dropped his tall frame into an empty seat, effectively placing himself between Jack and Gwen.

"And in what reality do you think you have any rights to negotiate here?" the Atlantean asked coldly. "Listen closely, little girl. Your actions tonight resulted in one of my people being very badly hurt. I won't take kindly to that at the best of times, and I am not the kind of guy that you want to piss off. More than that, though, you've managed to piss off Simi here. Jack is currently one of her favourite people, and you tried to betray him to the leader of the daimons. What I'm trying to say, basically, is that you fucked up, little girl, and if you want to live to see the next sunrise, you'll start talking right now."

Gwen stared at Ash, wide-eyed. Whilst a part of her wanted to protest that he had no right to speak to her like that, contrary to the belief of some, she wasn't actually that stupid. Recognising the absolute authority that Ash represented, even if unconsciously, Gwen spoke in a stilted voice.

"I was approached by General Stryker a week ago..."

"He's not UNIT, Gwen, and he's not a General," Jack said wearily. She flinched slightly at his harsh tone, but wisely chose not to answer back.

"He wanted to talk to me about Jack, and Torchwood. I told him that Torchwood had been disbanded..." Here, she shot Jack a filthy look, which he ignored. "He said it didn't have to be that way, and then he asked me if I knew where Jack was. I said no. That was when he told me that Jack had fallen in with some very dangerous people, and that UNIT needed my help to rescue him."

"Rescue me," Jack said scathingly. "That's rich. Even if it had been UNIT, rescue would have been the last thing on their minds."

"He said you'd been brainwashed," Gwen said defensively. "He said he had a way to make you realise you'd been fooled. I mean, come on, Jack! How could you possibly believe that this is Ianto? He's dead, Jack. Ianto died. I don't know who or what _that_ is, but it can't be Ianto. Except for you, the dead stay dead."

Gwen felt confident that her words would have some impact. She wasn't prepared for nearly everyone in the room to erupt into raucous laughter. She felt her face heat up as she found herself at the centre of their amusement. When her gaze came to rest on Jack, though, the heat turned to chills at his frigid expression.

"The dead stay dead. Really, Gwen?"

"You learnt the hard way with Owen," she said in a low, warning tone. "This isn't a game, you can't mess around with life and death. Jack, please, see reason. If you've done something, I'll understand, but you have to tell me now before it's too late!"

Jack's expression was positively dangerous by then.

"The dead stay dead. You goddamn hypocrite!"

Gwen jerked backward in fright at the force of his anger, confusion on her face.

"What are you talking about, Jack?"

"Rhys," Jack hissed furiously. "You deliberately went against my orders and opened the rift on the chance that it _might_ bring him back to life. He was dead, and you willingly risked destroying the world just on the chance that you might get him back. The dead didn't stay dead then, did they, Gwen? Or do you only apply that rule to everyone _other_ than yourself?"

She had no answer for that, and the deep blush that suffused her cheeks was telling. Jack nodded in bitter satisfaction.

"And that, Gwen, is the definition of a hypocrite."

"We're not going to waste time trying to convince you of anything," Ash interrupted. "Just finish telling us what you know about Stryker, and then I'll wipe your memory of all of this and we can all go back to our own lives."

"You can't retcon me," Gwen protested. "It won't work."

"I don't use retcon, little girl. I don't need to. I can alter your memories and you will never know what I've done."

"Just talk, Gwen," Jack ordered her tiredly. "Did Stryker talk about anyone other than me?"

"No," she answered shakily. "No, he was only interested in you, Jack. He said it was vital that they get a hold of you..."

Gwen trailed off with a confused frown, and Ash leaned forward with renewed interest.

"And? What else?"

"He said this to someone else, and I don't think he knew I heard him. He said 'we need to get hold of him before Aunty gets clued in', whatever that was supposed to mean."

"Fuck," Ash muttered. "The last thing we need is a war between Artemis and the daimons over you, Jack. And don't say you'll leave, because it's not happening. All else aside, you're part of my crew. That, and Simi would eat me alive if I let you go."

Jack's mouth snapped shut; anything he'd planned on saying effectively silenced. Ash nodded in satisfaction.

"So, we have to assume that the daimons know that while Jack is no Dark Hunter or Were Hunter, he is immortal."

"You think they might be hoping that they can absorb his immortality, like they absorb our abilities?" Dev wondered with a frown.

"It's possible," Ash agreed.

"It is what he's after," Jack said as memories of his brief discussion with Stryker began to filter back into his still fragmented mind. "He told me that I might be the key to him defeating all the gods finally. I tried to tell him that it doesn't work like that, but he wasn't interested in listening."

"He wouldn't be," Ash muttered. "It also explains why he didn't just cut and run when I got there."

"We're going to have to be very careful from now on," Ianto said quietly. "It was difficult enough before, trying to keep under Artemis' radar. She's bound to find out about Jack if Stryker keeps going after him."

"If you want him to be safe," Gwen said, "then let him go. Stop being selfish, and think about Jack. You obviously can't keep him safe here. Not against _that_."

"Gwen," Ianto said with a long-suffering sigh, "do you honestly think this is restricted to just America? To this city? It's not. This is a global war, and now that Jack is known to Stryker, there is nowhere on this planet that he could go where he'd be completely safe. The best protection he has now is to stay with me."

"Oh, bullshit," Gwen snapped, momentarily forgetting the company she was in. "You didn't like having to share him before you d... before, and you're too selfish to do the right thing by him now, and Jack will eventually be the one to suffer for it. You know I'm right, Ianto."

Jack tilted his head back to look up at Ianto incredulously.

"Share me? With who?"

"With her, cariad. You have to concede, you did flirt with her quite intensely."

"Well, sure, but I flirt with everyone! Anyway, once I was with you, I never actually slept with anyone else. I never wanted to sleep with anyone else."

Ianto leaned down to claim Jack's lips briefly.

"I know." He looked back at Gwen, who was watching them with plain jealousy. "I believe we have all the information we're going to get from you. It's time to say goodbye, Gwen."

She shook her head frantically, unaware that Ash had risen from his seat and had moved around behind her.

"No, you can't make me forget. It won't work. Jack!"

"You're going to have a great life, Gwen," Jack told her. "You just need to learn to appreciate what you've got."

"But you need me! You said you need me!"

"There was a time when I needed you," Jack admitted, "but not anymore. Let me go, Gwen, for your own sake."

"I'll never stop," she vowed fiercely. "Ever if you take my memories of this, I'll keep looking for you, Jack. I'll never stop looking. Do you hear me?"

"Enough," Ash growled. He merely glanced down at her, and her eyes rolled back and she collapsed in a heap. "Dev, get her out of here. Take her all the way home."

"You wiped her memory?" Dev queried as he lifted her up out of the chair.

"Altered, not wiped," Ash corrected. He looked to Jack and Ianto. "As far as she'll remember when she wakes up is that you're dead, Ianto. You, Jack, vanished immediately after the 4-5-6 were defeated. Rumour is that you called the Doctor, and are no longer on Earth."

Jack nodded.

"Good. As long as she thinks I'm beyond her reach, she'll leave well enough alone."

"Dev, make sure her husband backs up the story," Ash instructed. Dev nodded, and flashed away with Gwen securely in his arms.

"Well," Ash said wryly as he turned back to face the newest additions to the Dark Hunter and squire ranks. "This has been colourful."

"I'm sorry, Ash," Jack apologised. "It's my fault that she came looking for me."

"You can't control someone else's emotions, Jack," Ash told him. "You are who you are, and if she couldn't see that there was no difference in the way you treated her, compared to anyone else, then that's her problem. Not yours. You haven't done anything wrong, and you're not the first of us whose past has caught up with him."

"Maybe," Jack mused, "if my vortex manipulator ever turns up, I can make a show of going back to get it, and then use it to teleport away in front of her."

"You mean, trick her into believing that you've actually left the planet?" Ianto wondered, and Jack nodded.

"Mm, something like that. Sooner or later, she'll start looking for me again. She won't be able to help herself, and if her curiosity gets the better of her, if might make her vulnerable to another attempt by Stryker. As frustrating as she is, I still don't want her to get hurt. Her, or the baby she's carrying."

"Play it by ear," Ash advised. "Just talk to me before you decide to do anything. We're already on thin ice, here, and I really don't need Savitar going to town on my ass because things have gotten out of hand."

An odd look flickered briefly across Jack's face as he leaned back comfortably into Ianto's embrace.

"Savitar...?"

"You don't want to be in a hurry to meet him, believe me," Ash said wryly. "Especially if you've done something to piss him off, and pissing him off is likely to be the only reason you'd ever meet him."

"Duly noted," Jack murmured. He slumped against Ianto, the evening's events finally beginning to take their toll on him.

"Ash, I'm going to take Jack home," Ianto said quietly. "I'll go back on patrol after I've got him settled."

"Sure. Just keep your phone at the ready, and I suggest you don't stray too far. I don't think there'll be anymore trouble tonight, but I'd also rather not make assumptions. They always come back to bite us in the ass." He paused, considering, and then spoke again. "Actually, I think I'll send Simi to keep an eye on Jack, just for tonight. Simi?"

The Charonte demon reappeared immediately, licking her fangs and pouting.

"Akri-papa, you interrupted the Simi's dinner! I was getting good eats from those daimons you left for me."

"Sorry, Simi, but I've got an important job for you. I need you to stay with Jack for the rest of the night, and make sure no one gets a chance to hurt him again. Can you do that?"

"The Simi can do that," Simi confirmed. "The Simi will look after Jacky real good. He's quality peoples, and the Simi likes quality peoples."

"Thank you, Simi," Ianto said with relief. Knowing Simi was guarding Jack would ease his own mind considerably, and allow him to do his job without his thoughts wandering. "You're quality people, too, and we like you very much."

Simi beamed with pleasure, and Ash rolled his eyes in fond exasperation.

"You two clowns are lucky you're committed to each other. Otherwise, I'd probably have to kill you both. Go on, now. Get out of here. And Simi? If anyone even tries to get anywhere near Jack other than me or Ianto, chow down, baby."

* * *

><p>"I'm flattered," Jack said tiredly as Ianto bathed him with particular care.<p>

"Why?"

"Ash gave Simi permission to eat anyone who tries to come after me. I know I'm still pretty new to all of this, but I'm guessing that's a pretty big deal."

"I think you're right about that," Ianto mused. Jack lifted his head to peer up at Ianto.

"You sound distracted. What's wrong?"

Ianto shook his head.

"Nothing's wrong... Not exactly, anyway. I just couldn't help thinking about Gwen."

Jack groaned.

"Don't, Ianto. She's gone, and she won't be back. All she'll remember is that I'm gone, and as long as I keep a low profile... and Stryker doesn't try using her again... it should be the last time we have to worry about her."

"Are you trying to convince me or yourself that you won't miss her?" Ianto wondered. A sigh escaped Jack's lips.

"Yes, I will miss her. She's stubborn, blinkered, self-righteous, and _so_ amazingly _alive_. I'll miss the way she'd argue with me, the way she'd take charge when no one else could. I'll miss her love of life... Hell, I'll even miss Rhys!"

Ianto laughed softly, and Jack smiled in return.

"But given the choice," he went on in a more sober tone, "there isn't really a choice. I love her, but I love you so much more."

Ianto leaned down and kissed Jack lovingly.

"You don't have to keep trying to make up for it, you know. I understand why you couldn't say you loved me that night in Thames House."

Jack tensed a little but, much to Jack's relief, didn't pull away.

"When you said it, I knew you were saying goodbye, and I wasn't ready to hear it. I wasn't ready to say it. Afterwards, I hated myself so much, knowing that you might have died not knowing how much I love you."

"I didn't understand at the time," Ianto admitted, "but I do now, and I love you too."

A self-deprecating grin lip up Jack's face.

"I don't know about anything else, but this string of near-death experiences has made us pretty damn sappy."

"I think I can live with that," Ianto said with a chuckle. Jack grinned broadly.

"So can I."

* * *

><p><em> to be continued...<em>


	10. An Unexpected Acquisition

_A couple of months later_

Jack made his way along the river, hands shoved in his pockets and acting the epitome of casual. He had the afternoon to himself, and taking a walk like this was something that he hadn't had the freedom to do since... well, since long enough that he couldn't remember when he'd last been able to do so. It had been a very long time since he'd truly been able to enjoy such a lack of huge responsibility. For far too long, he'd been trapped within a prison that, in the end, had been of his own making. It was a shame, then, that this precious time to himself was overshadowed by the memories of the last twelve hours.

He had time to himself now because Ianto was spending the day in one of Sanctuary's private rooms that were usually used by Were Hunters. He'd had a nasty scrap the previous night with a particularly vicious daimon, and had taken some damage before dispatching it back to Kalosis.

Jack shut his eyes briefly as his mind went unwillingly back to the moment that his lover had taken three bullets from the daimon's gun. His emotions had been on swift-shift, and he's gone from panic-stricken to enraged in a matter of seconds. No slow burn for Jack Harkness, not where his Ianto was concerned.

Drawing his sword and putting Ash's warning easily out of his thoughts, Jack had launched himself at the daimon. Fortunately for him, the daimon had been caught by surprise and that surprise had stalled him long enough for Ianto to recover from the gunshot wounds, allowing the young Dark Hunter to dispose of the daimon. Then, he'd collapsed in the street, and it had been all Jack could do to get Ianto safely to Sanctuary where he could be treated accordingly.

Ianto had been equally appreciative and furious at Jack's interference in the fight. He appreciated that Jack loved him enough to put himself at risk to help him, but at the same time he was furious that Jack so willingly and so thoughtlessly put himself at risk to help him. That fury was on full display when Jack was confronted by a very, _very_ angry Dev Peltier.

Later, when he was getting thoroughly chewed out by Dev (Ash had refused to come near him, reportedly because he didn't want to say something they would all regret), Jack had been forced to acknowledge that his hero antics, while well-intentioned, had only had the potential to put Ianto at even greater risk. Had he been killed, Ianto would have had no back-up and no way of summoning help.

It was a sobering and humbling consideration. Far from saving the day, he could easily have caused untold chaos. Worst of all, he might just have gotten Ianto killed a second time.

One thing he was certain of now was that he would never again involve himself in a Dark Hunter's fight unless ordered to do so. Never again would he put his Ianto at risk like that.

The real clincher had come when he'd run into Simi after leaving Ianto to recuperate in Sanctuary, after Dev had ripped him a new one for his stupidity. Her words to him had had far greater impact than anything Dev could have said or done.

_"The Simi wants to talk to her Jacky,"_ Simi had told him with a level of gravity that had Jack's heart and stomach sinking into his boots. _"Akri is real mad, and so is the Simi. You dids a stupid thing, Jacky. What would Yan do if you was killed while he was hurt? Them daimons could have eated him, and you, too! And then the Simi would be sad because she'd lose two of her best quality peoples. You don't want the Simi to be sad, do you?"_

Jack tried to swallow the lump in his throat, but couldn't manage it. When he spoke, it was in a thick voice filled with emotion.

_"No, I don't want you to be sad, Simi. I promise I'll never be stupid like that again. I'm so sorry that I disappointed everyone."_

That, Jack was just now coming to realise, was what was still eating away at him. He'd wanted to make this new life work, and he'd desperately needed not only Ianto's approval but that of all of his new associates and friends, as well. His actions last evening had cost him dearly in those stakes, and he knew it would be hard to regain the trust that he'd lost.

Ianto had forgiven him immediately for his foolishness, as he had done so often before. His only recrimination had been to murmur _'silly old fool'_, before allowing Jack to drive him to the safety that was Sanctuary. Consequently, Jack had let his guard down, and was completely unprepared for the bollocking that was waiting for him.

He'd taken it, though, despite the humiliation of being chewed out publicly. It had been public, too. Dev had let rip in front of nearly all of his family, both immediate and extended.

Jack sighed aloud. His earlier enjoyment of the sun, and the open space and fresh air, had vanished. Now, all he felt was a desperate need to be back at Ianto's side, and that had absolutely nothing at all to do with having lost Ianto to death once and being paranoid about it happening again.

"Now you look like you're a boy with a lot on his mind."

Though he had only ever heard that voice once before, Jack had no trouble recognising it. He doubted he would ever forget the voice of the woman/goddess/whatever she was who had granted Ianto a potentially immortal existence.

He'd also been amongst the Dark Hunters and Were Hunters long enough now to know that his relationship with Ianto could land them both in very hot water if Artemis was to ever find out about it. For both their sakes, it was vital that she be led to believe that he was Ianto's squire, and nothing more than that.

Slowly, he turned to face her and his breath caught in his throat. He might have been aware of what a bitch she was, but it didn't take away from the fact that she was truly gorgeous to look at. The last time he'd seen her had been through the filters of the TARDIS' perception filter, and he'd thought her stunning then. Up close and personal, with no filter per se, she truly took his breath away.

"You do know who I am, don't you?" she asked loftily. Jack took a significant step back, and bowed low. Time to turn on the charm...

"My lady Artemis. It's an honour to be in your presence."

He could almost hear Ianto's derisive snort, even as the goddess preened, and he duly ignored the image that his mind presented. After all, he'd seen the way Ianto had sucked up to... what had Simi called her? Ah, yes, the heifer goddess. He was very careful not to let that one slip past his lips.

"Yes," she agreed, "I suppose it is. You know, you don't look like the typical sort of grunt that Acheron usually hires to look after the Dark Hunters. You, sweetie, look more like Dark Hunter material to me."

Jack might have started to worry at that moment, but for two things. Firstly, a person had to die in order for Artemis to make a Dark Hunter of them. Secondly, they needed to willingly surrender their souls to her. He couldn't stay dead even if he wanted to; and he would never surrender his soul to her, knowing as he did now that two Dark Hunters could not stay in close proximity to each other without being adversely affected.

The idea was to be with Ianto always, not always be separated from him.

"I'm a squire," Jack said with a shrug. "Just an ordinary squire."

Artemis' gaze roamed up and down his body and she licked her lips in a manner that was definitely predatory rather than sensual.

"Oh, I don't think there's anything ordinary about you," she said. "And apparently, my darling nephew is of the same opinion. Tell me, _Jacky_, what is so special about you that Stryker would risk obliteration by Ash to get his grubby hands on you?"

The first real frisson of fear gripped Jack and he wondered whether Ash was too pissed with him to come and save him from the psychotic Greek goddess. He took another step back, no longer caring how it looked. He just wanted to put as much distance between himself and Artemis as possible. His only other option appeared to be grovelling at her feet, and he had no desire to debase himself like that.

"I really don't know," he insisted. "I'm sorry, I have to go."

He turned to head back towards Sanctuary, only to slam into Artemis, who had materialised right in front of him. Her hands grabbed him by the shoulders in a crushing grip that he had no hope of escaping from, and actually had him crying out in pain.

"I'm not done with you yet, sweetie. We have a _lot_ to talk about, so how about we go somewhere that we aren't likely to be interrupted."

It wasn't a question, and she gave Jack no opportunity to respond. In the blink of an eye, Artemis was gone, and she'd taken Jack with her.

* * *

><p><em>to be continued...<em>


	11. Missing

Ianto arose after dark, feeling refreshed and almost fully healed from the bullet wounds he'd received not twenty-four hours ago. Now, he wanted nothing more than to find Jack and see that he was okay.

He knew that Dev had ripped Jack a new one for getting involved in the fight, and that Ash was avoiding Jack like the plague to keep from saying or doing something cataclysmic out of anger. Aimee told him about it earlier when he woke up, worried that Jack would take the dressing-down badly.

Ianto had not doubt that Jack would be upset, but not for the reasons that everyone expected. It wasn't the first time that Jack had gotten someone hellaciously mad at him, and it wouldn't be the last. If his lover could survive the wrath of an angry Time Lord, then nothing Dev Peltier had to say was going to affect him permanently.

No, what would have Jack distraught would be the memory of that night in Thames House, brought back with a vengeance by last night's events. Ianto knew Jack well enough to know that it was not having people mad at him that would be bothering him, but the perception that he had almost lost his lover all over again.

Ianto emerged into the bar, frowning. He had fully expected to find Jack hovering at his door, if not by his bedside, waiting for him to awaken and emerge. When he found that was not the case, he figured Jack would probably be waiting in the kitchen or the bar. The kitchen had been empty, aside from a few of the younger Peltiers, and it looked like Jack was definitely not in the bar. He joined Aimee at the bar, accepting the beer she passed him without protest. It was one of the minor injustices of his new state of being, that alcohol no longer had any effect on him. He thought it immensely unfair that he could no longer enjoy the simple pleasure of getting pissed.

"Any sign of Jack?" he asked after sculling the entire bottle.

"No, and Ash is not happy," Aimee told him ruefully. "He was supposed to take Simi shopping tonight, and apparently he never showed. Simi was upset, and you know how Ash is where Simi is concerned."

Ianto's first instinct was to cringe at the thought of how many ways Ash was going to kill Jack for letting down the Charonte demon, but that was quickly pushed aside to make way for concern.

"Jack wouldn't have stood up Simi, no matter how angry Ash is over last night. He adores Simi. There's no way he wouldn't have turned up, unless something happened to stop him."

"You think Stryker might have taken another crack at him?" Aimee wondered. "Ianto, it's only just turned dark. You know daimons aren't able to go out in the sunlight anymore than you can."

"What if he got a human to help him?" Ianto pressed. "He already tried it once, with Gwen as a lure. What if he did it again? Aimee, I know something is wrong. Jack simply wouldn't have stood up Simi. I'm absolutely positive about that."

"Okay, I believe you," Aimee conceded, "but Ash might not be so easy to convince. He really is hyper-sensitive where Simi is concerned and just between us...? I've heard whispers that Jack couldn't handle the blame he got after last night, and he's bailed."

Ianto bristled visibly, and his lips curled back instinctively to reveal his fangs in a silent snarl.

"No. No way. Jack might be a lot of things, but he's not spineless. He knew he fucked up last night, and he was prepared to take whatever Ash or anyone else dished out to him. He wouldn't have bailed over that, I guarantee it."

Aimee's eyebrows lifted as "Sweet Home Alabama" suddenly filled the otherwise quiet bar.

"Well, hon, you're gonna have your chance to try and convince him. He's just arrived."

Ianto turned in his seat and, sure enough, Ash strolled in with Tori on one side and Simi on the other. Simi, Ianto noted, did not look happy and he had to fight an urge to flee when she made a beeline straight for him.

"Where is Jacky hiding, Yan? The Simi isn't happy, and when the Simi isn't happy she gets the urge to start eating peoples."

"Yes, Ianto," Ash said darkly as he came to stand behind his demon. "Where is your soon-to-be ex-squire? Inquiring minds want to know."

Ianto somehow managed to quash the panic he felt at the threat in Ash's words and tone, and spoke urgently.

"Ash, something is wrong..."

"Damned right something is wrong. Jack stood up Simi for a shopping date. Nobody stands up Simi, Ianto. _Nobody_."

"But I think he might be in trouble..."

"Oh, he _is_ in trouble. He made Simi unhappy, and no one gets away with that."

Ash was getting angrier by the second, and Ianto knew he had a severely limited window to make the other man understand the wider situation. At the end of his temper, and starkly afraid for Jack's safety, Ianto snapped.

"Damn it, Ash, will you shut up and listen to me?"

All around them, silence fell like a blanket as the bar came pretty much to a stand-still. Beside Ash, Tori smile – in amusement at Ash and in encouragement to Ianto.

"I think you ought to listen to what he has to say, Ash," she told him in a gently reproving tone. "The same goes for you, Simi. Listen before you eat."

Ash frowned, but his temper had been soothed enough by wife to allow Ianto to speak.

"All right," the Atlantean said in a forcibly calm voice. "I'm listening."

"Jack hasn't bailed," Ianto said firmly. "I know that's what everyone thinks, but I know him better than that. He doesn't run and hide when he fucks up. He faces his mistakes. He knew he fucked up last night and he was willing to face whatever you were prepared to dish out to him. As for Simi, he adores her. There is no way in hell that he would have stood up her unless something bad happened to stop him. You have to believe me, Ash. Jack is in trouble, I'm sure of it."

"Akri?" Simi asked with a thoughtful frown. "If Jacky didn't stand up the Simi, and he's been stoled away by nasty daimons, does that mean the Simi can feast on daimons? 'Cause the Simi would get much better eats out of daimons, and she wouldn't have to feel guilty for eating one of her quality peoples."

"Maybe, Simi," Ash murmured as anger began to fade away, making way for concern. Not for the first time, and mostly likely not for the last, Ash cursed the vortex that kept him from seeing Jack's life. "If Stryker has him, they'll be in Kalosis, because Stryker knows it's the one place I can't go."

"And I don't think using Styxx will work a second time," Tori murmured. Ash concurred.

"We need to know for sure. There's no point trying to do anything until we do."

"How are you going to find out?" Ianto asked anxiously. Ash smiled grimly.

"I need to ask someone who wants me dead."

* * *

><p>Ash knew that it probably should have bothered him more than it actually did that Nick was never difficult for him to find. Given that the Dark Hunter-come-whatever that he was becoming was one of those who existed in Ash's blind spot, it really shouldn't have been so damned easy to track him down.<p>

Ash knew instinctively that it was a case of Nick keeping tabs on him, rather than the other way around. Maybe, just maybe, he was less bothered by it than he ought to be purely because he had other more important things to worry about than the ongoing pissing match between him and Nick.

"What the fuck do you want now?" Nick asked bluntly as Ash seated himself next to Nick at the bar of an incongruous little dive.

"Information," Ash said. "One of the squires has gone missing. Do you know if Stryker has a human prisoner in Kalosis?"

Nick snorted into his tequila.

"Now why would Stryker give a rat's ass about the squires? They're snack food to him, nothing more."

"Not this particular squire," Ash murmured. "This one is something special."

Nick looked sideways at Ash with eyes that reflected his inhumanity.

"Like you thought I was?"

Ash swallowed the urge to sigh. Just once, it would have been nice to have a conversation, however brief, with Nick that wasn't laden with recrimination and guilt. He said nothing, though, knowing with a heavy heart that he deserved every bit of the recrimination that Nick cared to lay on him. Judging by the infuriating smirk that touched Nick's lips, he knew exactly where Ash's thoughts had settled, and was more than happy about it.

"Does Stryker have a human prisoner or not?" he demanded. Nick shrugged.

"Have no idea. I haven't been to Kalosis since we got Tori out for you. You know the daimons will tear me apart if I show my face there again. Why don't _you_ go, if this little peon of yours is so fucking important?"

"You know I can't. You know _why_ I can't."

"That's right. Mommy dearest will rise up and destroy the Earth. You know something? Right now, that's not such an unappealing thought. So why don't you fuck off, before I get ideas about taking you there myself?"

Ash stood, his expression cold and angry.

"You don't have that kind of power, Nick."

He walked away, and was out the door before Nick whispered to himself, "Don't bet on it, Apostolos."

* * *

><p>Outside the bar, Ash focused his thoughts inwards and reached out for the only other person whomight be able to answer his question.<p>

_Matera?_

Apollymi responded immediately, and Ash wondered briefly why he'd wasted time in a verbal sparring match with Nick when he could have gone straight to a more reliable source.

_Apostolos, my son. I don't suppose you've come to your senses and changed your mind about freeing me?_

Ash did sigh, then. _That_ was why; a guilty trip of a whole new variety was on offer whenever he made contact with his mother.

_You know why I won't do that, Matera. Please, I have a question to ask, and I don't have a lot of time. Can you tell me if Stryker has any human prisoners in Kalosis?_

_No._

The answer was unexpectedly abrupt, and it took Ash a moment to regroup.

_No, he doesn't, or no, you don't know?_

_I don't exactly associate with Stryker now, Apostolos. But... I can tell you that he returned to Kalosis some nights ago absolutely furious, and has not left since. I'll do you the courtesy of not asking you about it, since I know you won't tell me._

Ash sighed again, though this time it was out of relief.

_Thank you, Matera._

_Be safe, my son._

* * *

><p>"Stryker doesn't have Jack," Ash announced upon returning to Sanctuary. "Apparently he's still sulking over his failed attempt to take him a week ago. Ianto, I'm sorry, but you are going to have to face the possibility that he might just have decided to walk."<p>

Ianto had to consciously suppress an urge to snap at Ash. He knew how it looked, and he knew that anyone who didn't know Jack as well as he did would make that assumption. He understood, but that didn't lessen the sting of the insult.

"He hasn't quit," Ianto insisted. "He's in trouble, and he needs our help."

"You truly believe that, don't you?" Aimee asked, and Ianto nodded.

"Yes, I do. What do I have to do or say to make you all believe it, too?"

Ash reached out and, in a rare gesture, clapped the young Dark Hunter on the shoulder.

"We don't need to believe it. As long as you believe it, we'll support you." Ash looked around, and his gaze quickly found Dev. "Get word out to your contacts, Dev. If anyone's heard a whisper about Jack, I want to know what it is. Simi, head over to Club Charonte and talk to your brothers about Jack. See if anyone them know anything, or have heard anything."

Simi left in a flash, as did Dev.

"Now," Ash said, turning his attention back to Ianto. "Tell me about UNIT, and just how eager you think they'd be to get their hands on Jack."

* * *

><p>Some hours later, just after eight in the morning, London time, Ash found himself on the doorstep of an English townhouse, wondering whether he'd lost his marbles at some point over the last day or so. It was the only logical explanation for why he was going so far for a squire – even one as extraordinary as Jack. Anyone else, and he would have washed his hands on them by now. He knew the Sanctuary Weres were wondering what was going on, and he really wanted to resolve this before the inevitable questions started.<p>

One thing was for sure – he was going to put his booted foot so far up Jack's ass when they found him that he wouldn't want to sit down for a whole fucking year.

Ash immediately regretted the thought, recalling the horrific wash of memories from Jack, and the knowledge that the man had already suffered that indignity, having been chained in the bowels of the Valiant for twelve months. Maybe he'd threaten something else, instead...

The door opened to reveal a silver-haired man with steely eyes.

"Yes?"

"Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart?" Ash queried, although he already knew. The man's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly.

"I am he. How can I help you, young man?"

Ash never failed to be amused by that particular term of reference, but the passing millennia had given him some skill in keeping that amusement to himself.

"My name is Acheron Parthenopaeus, Brigadier. I'm here on behalf of a mutual acquaintance. I believe you know Captain Jack Harkness?"

Alistair snorted, unable to stop what had become an instinctive reaction at the mere mention of Jack's name. Ash couldn't resist smirking.

"Obviously you do know him."

"You'd best come in," Alistair said, ushering Ash into the house and through to the living room. "Please, sit. I'm sorry, I can't offer refreshments. It's my housekeeper's morning off, and I'm afraid my hands just aren't up to lifting a pot of tea anymore. Blasted arthritis."

"It's okay," Ash assured him. Alistair seated himself and then turned a sharp look onto his visitor.

"Yes, I know Jack Harkness. Can't say I especially like him. The man is far too flamboyant for my liking. However, that doesn't translate to a lack of respect, and that is something I have in spades for Jack. I don't know who you are, or what you want with him, but know this. If you mean him harm, there is not a place in this universe that will be safe for you to hide."

Ash's eyebrows shot up. That was an unexpected reaction. He'd seen the loyalty that Ianto held for Jack, but this man displayed the same unswerving loyalty even despite claiming to not even like him.

"I don't mean him harm, I promise you," Ash assured him. "Jack joined my employ a couple of months ago. I'm concerned because he's gone missing, and I'm aware that certain agencies would like to get their hands on him."

Alistair's brow knotted in a frown.

"UNIT would certainly love to get hold of him, but as far as I'm aware, they've got no idea where he went to after leaving London. You know that the British Government tried to have him charged with treason in absentia?"

"No," Ash said with barely contained annoyance. He was starting to get rather frustrated with all the surprises being sprung on him courtesy of Jack. One thing he was less than fond of was surprises. "I didn't know that. You think a Government agency might be responsible?"

"Oh, I doubt it. They'd have even less idea of Jack's whereabouts than Jack. Our Government is in something of a crisis at the moment, Mr Parthenopaeus. They are far too busy trying to keep their positions after the recent incursion to be dedicating serious time to searching for the likes of Jack. No, the problem is that Jack Harkness is a wanted man by more than just humans."

Ash fought back a grimace. If only he knew the full reality of that statement.

"You think he might have been taken by aliens?" Ash asked aloud, and wondered at how he kept a straight face as he said it. Not that he doubted the existence of aliens, but it still sounded ludicrous coming from his own lips.

"I'm suggesting that it's a possibility," Alistair said. "I'm sorry, what exactly is it that you do?"

"A bit of everything," Ash answered vaguely. Alistair lifted an eyebrow amusedly.

"That's the sort of answer that Harkness would give. Fine, be obtuse if you will. The reality is that if Harkness is no longer on this planet, or in this time, then there is only one man capable of finding him."

Ash's eyes swirled silver as he again reflected on the multitude of Jack's memories that he had been made privy to.

"The Doctor?"

"Yes," Alistair confirmed. "The Doctor."

* * *

><p><em>to be continued... <em>


	12. Last Resorts

As fascinated as he was by a man who appeared not the slightest bit intimidated by him, Ash took care not to prolong his visit. The Brigadier was confident that UNIT was not responsible for Jack's disappearance, and that was all he needed to know.

What it meant was that Jack's disappearance was either supernatural, or it was deliberate on Jack's part. The more he considered it, the more Ash felt certain that Jack had not walked out on Ianto, or on his responsibilities as Ianto's squire. All else aside, and according to Dev, Ianto was right. Jack had taken the reprimand Dev had given him with a stoicism that was usually only attributed to Dark Hunters and Were Hunters. In Dev's own words, any other human would have pissed themselves at the sight of the angry Were bear. Jack had taken everything thrown at him without flinching, and without argument. It seemed inconceivable that he could have then just folded and decided to take off.

The final factor that convinced Ash that Jack had not simply run off was Simi. Ianto was right, Jack adored her. In the short time he'd been a part of their world, Jack had lavished gifts on Simi. They'd been nothing particularly fancy or expensive; rather, simple like cute novelty combs, jewellery and even the occasional bottle of exotic barbecue sauce. The last one amused Ash no end, and thoroughly delighted Simi. Just two weeks prior, Ash had collared Jack for a 'talk', worried that Jack's friendship with Simi was headed in an unsavoury direction. The last thing he needed was for Jack to bed the Charonte demon, and for them to have another situation on their hands like the one with Nick Gautier.

Jack had confessed that he saw Simi not as a potential bedmate, but rather as a surrogate daughter. He'd told Ash about having to leave behind his own daughter and grandson to be with Ianto, when he had only just reconciled with them. Spoiling Simi, Jack had admitted, went just a little way to filling that void. That was something that Ash understood all too well.

That settled it in Ash's mind. Jack would not have abandoned Ianto, and he would not have abandoned Simi. The only questions now, were who was responsible and where had they taken him?

The sinking feeling in the pit of Ash's gut worsened as he reluctantly acknowledged the one possibility that he had yet to consider. He had to know, though, and if it meant initiating contact with the bitch goddess who had made his life a misery for so long, then so be it.

"Artemis," he called out in a tone that was audibly lacking enthusiasm. He was so busy psyching up to face her that it took a couple of minutes to realise she hadn't responded to his admittedly half-arsed summons.

"Artemis!" he bellowed, but there was still no response. "Shit," he swore heatedly. No answer meant nothing good. The problem was working out just what percentage of shit was about to hit the fan – if it hadn't done so already.

Promising that he was going to kill someone, or something before the day was out, Ash teleported himself to Artemis' palace to confront her.

* * *

><p>The palace was empty. Aside from a scattering of handmaidens, who screamed and ran at the sight of him, Artemis was nowhere to be found. More to the point, neither was Jack.<p>

As he stood in the chamber where Artemis had extracted her price so many times for the release of a Dark Hunter soul, he sensed that there had been recent activity here, but he couldn't determine what, or who. With a shout of frustration that reverberated through the palace, and sent the handmaidens into a fresh panic, Ash teleported away.

* * *

><p>Katra supposed that if she had been an ordinary girl, having her father appear without warning in front of her might have startled her somewhat. She was not an ordinary girl, though. She was about as far from ordinary as a girl could get, even by the standards of the supernatural world in which she lived. Her mother was the Greek goddess Artemis – a fact that was known to precious few and would stay that way. Her father was an Atlantean god. Her maternal grandfather was king of the Greek pantheon and her paternal grandmother was Apollymi, the Atlantean goddess popularly known as the Destroyer. Basically, it was safe to say that she was well used to all kinds of weird, so having her father quite literally pop unannounced into her living room was nothing to be especially startled by.<p>

As soon as she saw his face, though, she knew there was a problem.

"What's wrong, Dad?" she asked, sensing the tension in him was just about ready to blow.

"I can't explain," he answered grimly. "I just need to know, do you know where your mother is? Have you seen her in the last couple of days?"

Katra regarded him incredulously.

"Okay, for you to actually _want_ to know where Mom is, the shit must have well and truly hit the fan. Come clean, Dad. What's going on?"

Ash caved, if only because he was simply incapable of lying and he just didn't pull that evasive, non-answer shit with his daughter.

"Katra, I think she may have kidnapped a human," he admitted. Katra's expression was inscrutable, even as mixed emotions went through her. While she knew her father didn't lie, she also couldn't conceive of the idea that her mother might do something so phenomenally... well, _stupid_. Kidnapping a human? It was impossible to believe.

"Dad, I know you can't stand Mother, but seriously..."

"This isn't about me getting any sort of revenge on her, Kat," Ash told her. "Firstly, I don't know for certain. Secondly, even if I did, I wouldn't exactly be busting down Zeus's door to tell him. I want to deal with this quietly, with as little bloodshed as possible."

Katra sighed.

"Well, I'm sorry, but you're barking up the wrong tree. She's stuck attending some celebratory feast that Zeus and Hera decided to throw. She's been there for a couple of days now. When did this human go missing?"

Ash felt a distinct sinking feeling in his gut.

"About twenty-four hours ago, now."

Katra looked as relieved as he looked ill.

"Well, it couldn't possibly have been Mother, then," she stated firmly. Ash wasn't so sure, but he knew better than to provoke his feisty daughter into an argument. When she got going, it was like trying to convince Simi that barbecue sauce was a bad thing. He valued his life more than that.

Maybe the Brigadier had been right. Maybe the reason for Jack's disappearance lay beyond the boundaries of Earth.

For the first time in a long while, Ash found himself at a loss, with no answers. The last time he'd been backed into a corner like this, there had been just one person who he could turn to for advice. Praying fervently that Savitar wouldn't draw and quarter him, Ash teleported himself away to Neratiti.

* * *

><p>Once before, Ash had sought Savitar's advice, and had been anxious enough that he'd joined him out of the water. It wasn't an experience he was keen to repeat, but the problem lay in knowing that he could be waiting for days before Savitar came back onto dry land. He also dared not call Savitar in, knowing that it would possibly result in one hell of an ass-kicking. The man simply did not like losing out on any surf time.<p>

Fighting the urge to openly curse Jack again, and whoever was responsible for his disappearance, Ash switched his clothes for a pair of jet black board shorts, manufactured himself a similarly coloured board, and teleported himself out onto the water.

* * *

><p>"I'm not going to say a word about you waiting for me," Ash grumbled when he materialised next to an extremely amused Savitar.<p>

"Say what you like. It's worth it to see you in shorts, on a surfboard."

"Evil son of a bitch."

Savitar smirked.

"Now, that would apply if I dematerialised your board, and made you swim to shore."

Ash clutched his board a little tighter, knowing well enough that Savitar could and would make good on his threat.

"Chill," Savitar told him with a chuckle. "You got lucky. There's not another decent wave due for another eleven minutes, and I happen to be a pretty good mood today, so talk."

"One of my squires is missing," Ash said bluntly. He knew from experience not to waste time with platitudes. Savitar was not the kind of guy who took kindly to any degree of time-wasting.

"You're interrupting my wave time because some human couldn't handle the pressure, and decided to cut and run?"

"I'm pretty sure he didn't do that."

"You can't see his life?"

"No, but it isn't for the usual reasons. This human is different. He's immortal."

Savitar abruptly let out a long string of expletives, almost startling Ash into falling off his surfboard.

"How in the name of fucking Tartarus did you end up with Jack fucking Harkness on your fucking payroll?"

Ash winced.

"I take it you know him."

"Know him? I _killed_ the mouthy son of a bitch. Twice! Once before I found out about his fucking immortality."

With a sinking heart, Ash knew then that he would get no help from Savitar.

"Sorry," he apologised. "I'll get out of here. You've still got time to catch that next wave."

Savitar's hand shot out, grabbing Ash's shoulder in a vice-like grip. An instant later, they were back on dry land.

"Sit down," Savitar ordered him, "and start talking."

Ash sat, wisely choosing not to complain about wet shorts and sand in places where sand was never meant to go.

"Artemis created a Dark Hunter using a kid that was killed during the recent alien invasion. Turns out he was Jack Harkness's lover, and Jack wasn't ready to let him go. He found out somehow about the deal Ianto made with Artemis, and he tracked him to New Orleans."

"And you let him stay. Seriously stupid move, Ash."

Ash shrugged.

"Maybe. I'm not going to argue with you. I will say this, though. Jack is a good person."

"So was Nick, before you fucked him over."

Ash bristled, but he knew better than to argue. After all, Savitar was right. He had fucked Nick over.

"Simi adores him," he offered, knowing Savitar had a soft spot for the Charonte.

"She adores Nick, too. You're not helping your cause, Ash."

"I'm pretty sure Artemis has him."

That admission gave Savitar pause.

"Can you prove it?"

"No," Ash said with a sigh. "It's more a gut feeling than an absolute certainty."

"Yeah, well, I'll trust your gut feelings any day, my friend." Savitar rose swiftly, all grace and power even on the shifting sand. "Even if Artemis does have Harkness, it won't do her any good. The only god who could access the power that made Harkness the way he is, is Kronos, and even Artemis wouldn't dare go anywhere near his prison. We both know what she's capable of, though, and no human deserves that... Not even one as irritating as Jack Harkness."

"She might not dare to go near Kronos," Ash mused, "but she might try to trap the Doctor."

Savitar looked at Ash sharply.

"Where did you hear about the Doctor? Did Harkness tell you?"

Overlooking his own surprise at Savitar apparently knowing about the Time Lord, Ash answered sincerely.

"He told me everything, Sav. No holds barred. He knew I couldn't see his life, because of the way he is, and he wanted me to trust him. He told me about the Doctor, the TARDIS, the time vortex and about how he became immortal. If Artemis decides to trap the Doctor..."

"It'll be the worst mistake she'll ever make, and quite possibly the last."

Ash gaped at the blunt, unsympathetic statement. He envisaged major trouble, but here was Savitar suggesting that a clash with this mysterious Time Lord could well result in Artemis' destruction. It was a painfully tempting thought. Savitar smirked unpleasantly.

"Believe me, I've been tempted more than once. Now, though... Assuming Artemis has him, and I think we both know that she does, then there's no time to be playing around. As unlikely as it is that she could somehow unlock the key to Jack's immortality, there's still that tiny possibility that she could do it. We can't risk it. Jack Harkness is one of a kind. No one else can be allowed to become like him. Especially not that bitch Artemis."

Ash concurred wholeheartedly. Somehow, Jack had come to terms with the way he was and had learnt over time not to abuse it to anyone else's detriment. He knew the same would not be able to be said of the likes of Artemis. The gods were arrogant, cruel and dangerous, but with the right tools and in the right circumstances they could be killed. With Jack's specialised brand of immortality, they would be unstoppable.

"I guess a visit to Artemis's temple is in order," Savitar said, sounding as though the very idea was distasteful to him. Ash supposed that it was, and it was a sentiment he could fully understand.

"I've already been there, and she wasn't there," Ash said. "She's nowhere that I can sense her, actually. It doesn't make sense. There is no way that she could hide herself from me that thoroughly."

"Okay," Savitar conceded. "Let's head to Sanctuary, then. I want to talk to the new kid."

* * *

><p>They landed smack in the middle of the bar, causing several of the patrons to flee in a panic.<p>

"Just as well we're human-free at the moment," Dev said dryly. "That would've taken some explaining."

"Or, they'd have just mind-wiped everyone and left them drooling at their tables," Remi added. Savitar shot him a warning look.

"Don't test my patience, bear. I didn't have a lot to start with, and it's getting worse with every wave I miss."

Remi held his hands up in surrender.

"Sorry. Backing off now."

"Look at that," Quinn retorted under his breath. "He does have a brain after all. Who'd of thought?"

Ash shot the brothers a threatening look before turning his attention elsewhere.

"Ianto! Get your ass over here."

Ianto approached with visible caution, watching Savitar with all the wariness of prey watching a predator. Savitar eyed him with a mixture of curiosity and pity.

"So you're Jack Harkness's latest conquest. My sympathies, kid."

Ianto's eyebrow lifted, but he said nothing of his immediate suspicions. A hint of a smirk quirked the corners of Savitar's lips.

"C'mon, kid. Let's go somewhere private, and have a little chat.

His hand landed on Ianto's shoulders, and Sanctuary was instantaneously replaced by cool water, gently rippling under a broad and beautiful moonlight vista. Ianto looked around in momentary disorientation, trying to regain his equilibrium. He was sure he recalled being forewarned at some point about Savitar's deep love of the ocean and surfing, but it was another thing entirely to be subjected to it in reality. It didn't help that he'd never been on a surfboard before in his life.

"You're not going to fall off unless I want you to," Savitar told him, "and I'm not likely to want that unless you piss me off. The bad news is, it doesn't take much to piss me off."

Against his better judgement, Ianto forced himself to sit up a little straighter and relax his grip on the sides of the board. He studiously ignored the almost lurid pair of board shorts he was now wearing in place of his chosen garb. This was the infamous Savitar, and if Savitar put him in hot pink shorts with little purple love hearts all over them, he wasn't going to protest. That and, despite all he'd heard, he trusted Savitar to be fair and reasonable.

"You trust me," Savitar mused. "You've never met me before now, and I don't doubt you've heard all sorts of horror stories about what a hard-assed bastard I am, but you trust me. Why?"

"Because I've never met you before, and all I've heard are stories. I have no reason not to trust you. Also, Ash trusts you. That's all I need to know."

Savitar grunted.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think you were being an obsequies little bastard, but you're actually being genuine. Interesting. Are you like this with Harkness?"

"If you mean non-judgemental, then I would hope so. I've tried to be."

"He'd definitely appreciate that, given everything he'd done."

Ianto sighed softly.

"He's no angel. I know that. I know he's done terrible things in his life. So have I. I have no right to judge him."

"It's hard not to be judgemental," Savitar pointed out. "Especially where Harkness is concerned."

"I did say I tried not to be," Ianto pointed out. "I didn't say I always succeeded. But Jack... Yes, he's done some terrible things, but he's done some amazing things as well. Probably the most amazing thing was giving up Torchwood and changing his whole life around for me. Coming to New Orleans, giving up all the authority he had... He could have just mourned me and then moved on with his life, but he didn't. He chose to follow me. I can't describe what that really means to me."

Savitar smirked.

"I love pairings that send the Fates into a screaming fit; especially ones that result in impossible pregnancies."

Ianto blinked owlishly.

"Jack pregnant, or me pregnant?"

Savitar roared with laughter at the ill-concealed panic in Ianto's voice.

"Nice try at hiding your panic, junior, but you can relax. You don't have the internal equipment for it, and even I wouldn't go that far just to fuck with those bitches."

"So Jack _can _get pregnant," Ianto murmured, more to himself than to Savitar. "I always wondered how serious he was about that."

"I'm going to help you, kid," Savitar said abruptly, "but not for the same reasons everyone might assume."

Ianto never had a chance to ask, and doubted that he would have even if he'd had that chance. An instant later, they were back in Sanctuary – fully clothed, much to Ianto's relief.

"Savitar?" Ash asked.

"How certain are we that Artemis has Jack?" Savitar asked as he pulled out his cell phone.

"I'm positive," Ash answered flatly. "I just don't know how she could keep him hidden from us."

"Ianto ought to have a couple of ideas," Savitar said, and Ianto looked startled.

"Me?"

"Yes, you. Think, junior. The whole planet got moved by those Dalek freaks. They hid this planet, and a few others. How?"

Ianto's breath caught as he recalled a conversation with Jack as they'd gotten rid of that blasted Dalek from the entry way into the Hub.

_"So, did the Doctor explain why it took him so long to find us?"_

_Jack smiled a little._

_"Do I detect a note of annoyance, Mr Jones?"_

_"No, of course not. I was just wondering."_

_"Mmhmm. Well, it wasn't his fault. The Daleks hid the Earth one second out of synch with the rest of the universe."_

_"That's really possible."_

_"Apparently."_

_"Handy trick. Just think, if your wrist strap was that accurate, we wouldn't need to worry about Gwen walking in on us anymore..."_

Jack had roared with laughter, and proceeded to chase Ianto down into the archives, where they'd shagged each other senseless. The conversation that had preceded that little session had been consigned to the archives of Ianto's own mind – until now.

"One second," he said tensely. "When the Daleks stole the Earth, they hid it from the Doctor and the Shadow Proclamation by suspending it one second out of sync with the rest of the universe."

"Shadow Proclamation?" Aimee wondered in confusion.

"Galactic United Nations," Savitar said dismissively. "Twice as pompous, and just as impotent."

"But if that's what Artemis has done," Ash said with a frown, "her temple is still there."

"But she wasn't," Savitar agreed. "Or at least, she didn't appear to be."

"How could she pull something like that off?" Ash muttered. "She's got no power over time. None of her pantheon do. Like you said, only Kronos, and she wouldn't dare go anywhere near him. Zeus would kill her himself."

"There's another possibility," Ianto spoke up. "It's something that wouldn't need someone who can control time. There's this thing called a time lock... A friend of mine created one, and it saved me and Gwen from a Dalek that attacked us during that invasion. If she'd found someone who could create one of those, it would lock her and Jack inside a sort of bubble that would keep them outside of time. They could still be in her temple, but no one would know."

"Yeah, not so much caring about the how just yet," Savitar said brusquely. "The question now is how to reach her and get back your pain in the ass squire before he tells her how he got to be the way that he is."

Ianto bristled in indignation at Savitar's words. Intended or not, he'd just insulted Jack unnecessarily.

"He won't cave. He's stronger that you credit him for being."

All around them, everyone cringed at Ianto's confrontational tone – even Ash.

"Easy, kid," Vane murmured, but Ianto was having none of it.

"You may not like him, sir, and you might see him as a waste of oxygen, but he is so much more than that. He endured a year of the worst sort of torture at the hands of a madman; he endured two thousand years of being buried alive beneath Cardiff to stop his own brother from completely destroying everything and everyone he cared about. Yes, he's done terrible things, but there's not many of us here who haven't. You think he'll give in easily to Artemis? I say he won't. Never underestimate him, sir. Never."

By the time Ianto finished speaking, just about all who had been listening had backed right away. Even Ash was watching Savitar with half a mind on Sanctuary's closest exits.

Stunned was not quite the word to adequately describe how they all felt when Savitar suddenly laughed.

"You're loyal, and you've got balls. I like that."

Ianto imagined that had he not already had the complexion of a ghost, that outburst and its potential ramifications might just have given him one. He knew Savitar's reputation well enough to know that exploding like that might well have been the last thing he ever did when it was Savitar on the receiving end. Knowing that, however, he could not bring himself to apologise, and he said as much in a subdued tone.

Savitar clapped him on the shoulder with such strength that Ianto was sure it would have shattered his collar bone, had he been human. As it was, the only thing that saved him from going head over heels was Savitar's grip on him.

"Kid, if you'd capitulated like that, I probably would have had to kill you. Now, let's go kick that heifer bitch's ass all the way to Tartarus."

* * *

><p><em> to be continued...<em>


	13. Summoning the Doctor

When Savitar indicated his intention to bring the Doctor in on the situation, Ianto had to admit that he didn't really know what to expect. Whilst he remembered what Jack had said about no one being able to enter the TARDIS uninvited, neither could he conceive of Savitar being denied entry if he really wanted to get inside. He wondered, as a small, select group exited Sanctuary, whether there was some sort of mutual agreement between Savitar and the Time Lord. Then he tried to keep his head from aching at the thought of the level of chaos that could potentially be caused by the two beings.

One thing Ianto was sure of was that Savitar was far older than the Doctor's nine hundred and something years. No one knew for sure how old he really was, but Ianto guessed he was at least as old as Ash, and with that sort of age came immense power.

With those thoughts lingering in his mind, Ianto was barely able to conceal his surprise when Savitar took out his phone and simply called the Doctor.

"It's exactly 2.37am on October 9th. I'm waiting outside Sanctuary in New Orleans, and if you keep me waiting for more than thirty seconds, I will kick your scrawny Gallifreyan ass clear across the galaxy.

Four pairs of eyebrows shot up simultaneously, but there was no opportunity to ask questions. Exactly twenty-two seconds after Savitar made the call, the sound of grinding engines filled the air and a battered-looking blue box appeared in front of them. The doors were flung open and an annoyed face peered out, quickly finding Savitar.

"Would it really hurt that much just to say 'please' once in a while? Honestly!"

"It got you here, didn't it?" Savitar asked in amusement. "And I need you here _now_, not in five months' time."

The Doctor opened his mouth to protest, but Savitar cut him off.

"Your driving sucks. Get over it."

The Doctor huffed in annoyance but it quickly vanished at the sight of Ianto.

"Well, Ianto Jones," he said, with a tiny hint of a smile to take the edge off the brusque tone, although he couldn't quite conceal his disapproval. "I'm not quite sure whether 'alive' is entirely the right word, but you are looking well."

Ianto had no trouble hearing the disapproval in the Doctor's voice and found that he simply didn't care. After all, the Doctor had no cause to criticise after everything he'd done to Jack over the years.

"I made a choice," he said with a shrug. "I don't regret it and you have no business judging me over it."

"I'll say he doesn't," Savitar retorted. "I didn't call you here to be a judgemental son of a bitch, Doctor. I called you here because we need your help to find a mutual... acquaintance."

It was the Doctor's turn to raise his eyebrows.

"You're talking about Jack, aren't you?"

"You don't sound surprised."

The Doctor snorted loudly.

"What I'm surprised by is how long it took him to get himself in trouble. I thought he'd need me to bail him out long before this."

"Doctor," Ianto said in a low, tense voice, "you may be the last of the Time Lords, and you may believe that entitles you to be arrogant and rude, but there is something you really should take into account."

"And what would that be?" the Doctor wondered, staring piercingly at Ianto. The young Dark Hunter stared back with eyes that swirled black and silver.

"You're insulting the man that I love, and I can hit you hard enough to regenerate you."

The Doctor blinked owlishly.

"Yes. Right. Well." He turned abruptly to face an openly smirking Savitar. "Perhaps you'd all better come in, and tell me what's happened."

They filed into the TARDIS behind the Doctor – Savitar, Ianto, Ash, Dev and Vane. While neither Savitar nor Ianto reacted outwardly to the sight of the engine room, the other three took a requisite moment to admire the ship.

"Well, I'm impressed," Dev admitted. "First we find out that aliens are real, and now this."

Vane smirked, then looked over at Ash.

"This is kind of like your place, every time Simi needs another room for all the stuff she's bought."

"Where is Simi, by the way?" Dev wondered. "We could use her help, especially since Artemis is shit-scared of her."

Ash shook his head.

"I sent her to Club Charonte, and she's better off staying there until this is over with. As much as I hate Artemis, killing her is not a good idea, and I just don't know that I'd be able to stop Simi once she's been let loose."

"Call her."

Ash looked at Savitar, mildly annoyed.

"I really don't think that's a good idea."

"Trust me," Savitar said. "Good idea or not, we need her. Artemis is not going to give Jack up easily. She's likely to give him up to Zeus before she lets us take him, and you know what the old fart is like when it comes to immortals who aren't gods."

"He'd try to destroy him," Ash muttered.

"Exactly. Summon your demon, Apostolos, and be ready to go in at full god strength."

Ash froze, his eyes shifting to Dev and Vane, who were watching the exchange in growing astonishment. As far as they were concerned, Ash was simply the leader of the Dark Hunters. Here, though, was Savitar all-but saying that he was actually a god. It was a shock to the system, to say the very least.

"They'll keep it under wraps," Savitar said with a deceptive flippancy that barely masked a very real threat. "That is, provided they want to remember how to eat with a knife and a fork."

Two mouths snapped shut at the same instant, and Vane and Dev suddenly found the walls of the TARDIS extremely fascinating. The Doctor, however, made no effort to conceal his curiosity.

"Apostolos? You're Apollymi's son?"

"Yes," Ash answered with a theatrical sigh, all the while silently plotting to wipe the entire conversation from Dev and Vane's minds as soon as the opportunity presented itself. Even if they kept the secret of his origins, it wouldn't take long before they began to behave differently around him and that, in turn, would have everyone wondering. It was a chance that Ash simply wasn't willing to take.

"So, you're the one that Jack had his memories stolen over trying to help."

That simple statement brought Ash back to reality with a jarring crash, and he looked at the Doctor in confusion.

"What are you talking about?"

"You have the ability to see the past, present and future of most people," the Doctor said with a grim smile, "but you deliberately choose not to remember your own human life. I can understand why, but you should think back to when you were just a little boy... no more than two or three years old."

Ash stood stiffly, fighting an overwhelming desire to shut the other man up before something that he really didn't want Dev or Vane to know about was blurted out. The Doctor went on, his voice dropping to a low murmur that was nevertheless heard clearly by all present.

"Your sister wasn't the only friend you had. For a time, for approximately two years, one of the palace guards was assigned to watch you, and he was more of a father to you than either your human father or your godly father ever was. Do you remember, Acheron? He gave you affection whenever you craved it. He did his best to protect you from the cruelty of others, even when it resulted in him being punished. He loved you like a son, and he treated you like it."

And despite his best efforts not to, Ash did remember.

He remembered a smiling face and a voice that never had a harsh word or tone for him. He remembered arms that had always been open and waiting to give hugs rather than slaps – hugs that had _never_ les to unwanted touches. Most of all, though, he remembered the bitter day when his protector had disappeared, leaving him with only a sister who could not protect him nearly as well as she wanted to.

"He was never supposed to be there, you know," the Doctor said almost idly. "He went back in time and took on a job that no one else wanted, going completely against his Time Agency orders. He deliberately interfered in your timeline because he couldn't stand to see a child be mistreated. The reward he got for showing you compassion was the removal of those two years from his memory."

"If he doesn't remember," Ianto said with a frown, "then how do you know?"

"Well, it's not actually a memory removal," the Doctor conceded. "More like a memory block, except the Time Agency were very proficient at making those blocks permanent. When Jack travelled with me, before he became a fixed point, I offered to help him remember what the Agency had blocked. I underestimated the strength of the block, and I put Jack into a coma in the process of trying to get rid of it. So I saw his memories, but there was nothing I could do to help him regain them. I couldn't even tell him about them. That would have been like a worm, burrowing away inside his mind. Eventually, it would have resulted in permanent damage. All I could do in the end was to reassure him that what he'd done was not a bad thing. Not on a moral level."

"Son of a bitch," Savitar murmured. "Even I didn't know about that. I guess the cocky little bastard does have a redeeming point after all."

Ash let his breath out in a rush, overwhelmed with emotion. Those two years had been the happiest of his human life, and he instinctively knew that Jack would have died to keep him from being sold to his uncle as a sex slave. Fresh determination gripped him, and he spoke in a guttural voice.

"Simi!"

The Charonte demon appeared in an instant at the summons, and by all appearances she knew her akri was on the cusp of unleashing his god powers.

"Did Akri Papa find the Simi's Jacky?"

"We know who has him, Simi," Ash confirmed. "We're going to get him back."

"Does the heifer goddess gots the Simi's Jacky? Is the Simi going to get to eats the heifer goddess finally?"

"Simi, listen to me," Ash said, and as he spoke he transformed from his chosen human look into his true god form. Simi squealed in delight.

"Akri Papa gots his hornays out! The Simi's gonna gets her barbeque sauce!"

"Listen," Ash ordered sternly. "We are not going to kill Artemis, as much as I'd like to. We are going to save Jack."

Simi pouted, but didn't argue.

"The Simi understands. No eating the heifer goddess."

"Good girl." Ash turned to the Doctor, and he wasn't lost on him the lack of surprise from the Time Lord at his appearance. "Artemis has Jack. I'm certain of that. What we suspect is that she has somehow found a way to manipulate time to keep him hidden from us."

"There are two possibilities that we know of," Ianto said. "Either she's used the same trick the Daleks used when they stole the Earth..."

"One second out of sync," the Doctor murmured with a frown.

"Or, alternatively," Ianto said, "she's managed to somehow create a timelock."

"That would be more likely," the Doctor conceded. "But how could she pull it off? Artemis has no power over time, and Jack doesn't even have his vortex manipulator anymore."

"We don't know how she could have done it," Savitar said. "Not for sure, although I have my suspicions. We'll deal with that later. Right now, our goal is to find her and get Jack away from her before she can do permanent damage to him."

The Doctor shook his head as he returned his attention to the control panels.

"Jack is a fixed point in time and space. Whatever she does won't be permament."

He turned, intending to take off his coat and toss it onto the pilot's seat, only to find himself almost nose-to-nose with Ianto.

"Doctor," Ianto said in a low, menacing tone, "you ought to know as well as, if not better than anyone else that the fact that Jack is a fixed point does not gift him with a magical cure-all. His physical body may recover but his heart, mind and soul are another matter entirely. I know what he sacrificed for you and the Jones family on the Valiant. I've witnessed the nightmares that he still has about that year I've seen the evidence of his PTSD. It bothers me greatly that you don't seem to see past the physical, visual evidence of Jack's body, but now is not the time to argue with you over that. What you need to understand is that every minute longer in Artemis' control is a minute too long. Every minute longer is an extra minute of trauma added to Jack's suffering; and the longer it takes us to reach him, the longer it will take him to heal. And I suspect I would not be wrong in saying that Artemis is far more sadistic than the Master ever was."

"She is," Ash confirmed tightly. The Doctor looked around, agape, and his gaze lingered fractionally on Savitar. Unless he was mistaken, the cheeky blighter was smirking at him again.

"Found a new favourite, Savitar?" the Time Lord asked snarkily. Savitar didn't so much as twitch.

"Keep it up, you alien flunky, and I'll put you in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with nothing but a surfboard and a pair of board shorts."

Annoyance, mixed fleetingly with panic, flashed across the Doctor's face but, tellingly, he didn't argue.

"All right," he conceded, starting the time rotor. "Let's go get the Captain."

* * *

><p><em>to be continued...<em>


	14. Rescue

"How was it," Artemis asked lazily, "that your blood doesn't taste any different to other humans? I mean, you're immortal, so there should be something... anything! But you're just pathetically, annoyingly normal. I don't get it!"

Jack said nothing. He didn't even attempt to speak. Firstly, he'd learnt early on that it was pointless to try and answer when she either didn't believe him or simply didn't want to know. Secondly, it was kind of hard to answer with his lips sewn shut.

That, in itself, didn't bother him as much as he supposed it should have. After all, the Master had done it to him at least half a dozen times – twice to starve him and four times purely to shut him up. No, what bothered him was the thread that Artemis had used.

Far from being ordinary thread, what she'd used had apparently been woven by Athena herself, made from the fire of the gods. Jack believed it, too. It burned like the Sun. He was in agony, with no apparent sign of relief.

He hung before Artemis, naked and suspended cruelly by his wrists. His toes just touched the floor, ensuring that any relief on his strained arms and wrists was impossible to achieve. His entire body was alight with pain, for Artemis had used the same thread that she'd used to sew his lips shut, wrapping it around his body from head to toe in a criss-cross pattern. That was after she had flayed him innumerable times.

Jack was beyond having the wherewithal to backchat her. Now, it was all he could do to keep his thoughts focused and centred – specifically, away from Ianto.

"See, I can't even make you a Dark Hunter," Artemis mused. "I would, you know, just to piss off Ash. And you are pretty enough. But I can't reach your soul. It's there, but I can't access it. Whatever was done to you, sweetie, it was the whole package. Lock, stock and two smoking cannons. The whole burrito. You get my meaning?"

If Jack had had the strength and presence of mind to roll his eyes, he would have. Her crappy, wrongly-phrased puns were almost as much of a torture as the fire thread was. He wasn't fully aware of Artemis approaching until she was running her fingernails over his body, forcing a strangled scream of pain from his mutilated lips. She looked him over with the same clinical interest that Emily Holroyd had displayed when dissecting a new alien. Artemis was insane, he realised. It was a functional insanity, like the Master, but she was undisputedly insane nonetheless.

He wanted to weep, knowing that this vindictive, psychopathic bitch held Ianto's soul captive.

"You aren't as pretty as Ash, or even Nick," Artemis mused, sounding for the world like she was having a simple conversation over coffee and cake. "You are very easy on the eyes, though. And of course, I can't just let you go. I can't risk my brother's son getting hold of you. I'm sure you understand. So, I'm just going to keep you here, where I can play with you whenever I feel like it." She brightly at him; a look that sent shudders through Jack. That look definitely reminded him of the Master. Worse, though, was the sickening realisation that if he remained captive to this crazy bitch, he might never see Ianto again. The reality of that fear hit him like a sledgehammer, and a single tear escaped his eye.

The fear he felt for himself was secondary, although not entirely missing. He was desperately scared, and he wasn't ashamed to admit it.

Pain flared across his back and he screamed in agony, a reaction that only caused him yet more pain as he tried involuntarily to open his mouth. She was whipping him again, and would continue to do so until the flesh of his back was thoroughly shredded. Then she would gorge on his blood, which would send her into a mindless frenzy which would most likely end in torture, rape and death – not necessarily in that order.

His strangled screams were just starting to subside into gurgling moans when his strained and tired eyes caught an unexpected flash of light and he blinked dazedly. He was starting to hallucinate because for a moment there, he could have sworn he could see Ianto. Except, he knew that Ianto couldn't possibly be there, because Artemis – canny bitch that she was – had somehow managed to replicate Toshiko's final technological triumph, the time lock. How she'd done it, he didn't know, but she had frozen time within a private chamber hidden deep beneath her palace on Mount Olympus. Time continued to move on around them, but they were locked away inside a time bubble that kept them isolated and beyond the reach of anyone who might have been willing to rescue him.

Jack shut his eyes in grief, willing the apparition away. It hurt far too much to be imagining his young lover now. More likely, Ash had probably decided that he'd cut and run, and there really was no evidence to suggest otherwise. He risked opening his eyes again, and found that the image of Ianto had been replaced with that of an enormous, blue-skinned man with horns... _horns?_

Jack's eyes snapped wide open as he recognised Ash in what had to be his true god form. Then, he recognised Simi at his shoulder, looking frighteningly ravenous. Behind them, he recognised Dev and Vane, and then his vision widened even more to take in the sight of someone that he had quietly hoped he would never see again.

Savitar...

And beside him, the Doctor?

_I've lost my mind,_ Jack thought miserably. _I am officially insane._

He let his eyes slide shut once more, resigned to being lost inside the caverns of his own mind. Therefore, it was a major shock to the system when a very real voice bellowed thunderously, damn near deafening him.

"_Artemis!_"

Caught up in the frenzy of what she was doing, Artemis never noticed the odd blue box appear almost directly in front of Jack. She never noticed the beings that emerged from within that odd blue box. She did, however, notice when Apostolos roared her name in rage.

Dropping her whip, the goddess of the hunt leapt back in fright – a fright that was compounded when she saw Savitar.

"How did you find us?" she demanded, her fear serving to accentuate her rapidly growing hysteria. The Doctor stepped forward, and his entire presence radiated fury at the state that Jack was in. At that moment, he was every bit the Oncoming Storm.

"I am the Doctor. I'm the Last of the Time Lords from the planet Gallifrey. I ended the Time War and I've faced legions of Daleks and Cybermen. I even fought the devil. I've trapped my enemies in time itself for far less than what you've done; not only to Jack but to so many others over the course of your existence. Right now, at this moment, I struggle to find one single reason why I shouldn't end you."

"You can't talk to me like that!" Artemis protested. "I'm a god!"

"You are merely a being who is incapable of dying a natural death," the Doctor snapped. "Believe me, you are not eternal. A time will come when you won't even exist as a footnote in the annals of human history. Jack, on the other hand, will become a legend throughout the universe and I can't allow you to interfere with him any longer.

Artemis sneered at him, though it was obvious she was far less confident that she tried to appear.

"Oh, sweetie, have you ever got the wrong end of the tree."

"Stick," Ash, Dev, Vane and Ianto all muttered. Artemis glared at them and gave an imperious flick of her hair.

"Whatever. What you ought to realise is that I am not giving him up. You might think you're going to take him, but all I need to do is summon my father and not only will he put an end to pretty boy there, he'll also end each and every one of you."

"Artemis, you stupid, arrogant bitch," Savitar said in a bored voice. "Go ahead, call your daddy. Let's finally see just how powerful he is next to Apostolos. And even if he won, you know what would happen then."

Artemis paled. Yes, she knew all too well that Acheron's death would release Apollymi from her prison in Kalosis, resulting in not only the end of the human world, but of the entire Greek pantheon into the bargain. She glared at Savitar, but her anger had lost much of its heat.

"What do you, of all people, care about one insignificant human?"

"You heard the skinny alien," Savitar said bluntly, ignoring the indignant sound from the Doctor. "Jack may be a lot of things, but insignificant is not one of them. Now, cut him down, or I'll personally give the okay for Simi to eat you."

"The Simi's got her barbeque sauce just in case," Simi spoke up with a wicked grin. "Lots and lots of barbeque sauce for the heifer goddess."

Artemis turned to Ash, making one last ditch effort to keep her dignity.

"You'll pay for this. One way or another, I will get payment from you." Her gaze shifted to Ianto. "And as for you, you traitorous little bastard..."

"Oh, we'll get to what you'll do for him shortly," Savitar interrupted. "Right now, you're going to release Jack. _Now_, Artemis!"

"Fine," she snarled and, with a flick of her wrist, Jack, fell abruptly to the floor with a painful thud. His groan of pain quickly escalated into a muffled scream as the fire thread that bound him came away, like string being pulled off a leg of lamb. It was slow and utterly torturous. Artemis' glee at causing that extra bit of suffering was short-lived, though, when Ianto uttered a cry of rage at her unnecessary cruelty, and launched himself at Artemis.

She fended him off easily, flipping the young Dark Hunter to the floor and quickly pinning him beneath her with a very sharp blade to his throat.

"Oh, sweetie, that was a very big mistake you just made."

"Enough!" Ash exploded, his patience rapidly wearing out. "Simi, neutralise Artemis."

Artemis barely had time to widen her eyes before Simi tackled her, teeth bared and eyes alight with demonic power.

"The Simi doesn't like it when her Yan and Jacky gets hurt. They's quality peoples, and the Simi looks after her quality peoples."

"Ash, get her off me!" Artemis screamed. Ash came to stand over her, still in god form and his eyes blazing with barely-controlled rage.

"Why should I?"

She stared up at him, wide-eyed as it began to sink in that this time, he might just choose not to save her. Savitar joined them, along with Vane and Dev in animal form, while Ianto and the Doctor helped Jack.

"None of us feel much like helping you after this," Savitar mused. "You've done some pretty spiteful things before, but this is definitely up there with the worst of them." He looked back over his shoulder as Ianto lifted Jack carefully up off the floor. "Take care of him. We'll be along shortly."

The Doctor hesitated, frowning at Savitar in suspicion. Savitar pointed at the TARDIS, and his tone brooked no argument.

"Go. Get your scrawny alien ass inside your ship. Leave this to the grown-ups to deal with now."

The Doctor went, huffing indignantly.

"Grown-ups. That's rich..."

He went without further argument, though, disappearing into the TARDIS behind Ianto, and leaving Savitar and the others to deal with Artemis.

"Why?" Ash demanded, glaring down at Artemis. "Why take him? Why torture him like that? And don't say it was to stop Stryker from using him, because you know damn well that his immortality is unique. It can't be transferred to anyone else."

"What can I say?" Artemis said with a shrug – a gesture that was not so easy to perform with Simi sitting on her. "I wanted a pet. He was perfect, because I could do whatever I liked with him, and he just reset every time."

"You really are a heartless bitch," Savitar said bluntly.

"Trees and rocks," Artemis snapped. "Now, get this demon off me, or I'll send the cute kid's soul straight to Tartarus."

The threat broke what little control Dev and Vane still had, and both bear and wolf lunged forward with a roar and a snarl. Artemis screamed again, but all her struggles could not free her from Simi's hold. Savitar smiled coldly.

"No, you won't. You'll release Ianto's soul to me or like I said before, I will personally give the go-ahead for Simi to chow down on your vacuous head."

"You wouldn't dare," Artemis whispered, but even as she protested she saw a different truth in Savitar's cold and calculating stare.

"No? Go ahead, then. Call my bluff, Artemis. Let's see what happens."

She said nothing, and Savitar nodded in satisfaction.

"That is the first smart thing you've done so far. Now, I'm sure you'll remember the little gift that Apollymi gave to Tori, and that your idiotic attempt to kill her resulted in Ash's need for your blood to keep him same to be cancelled out. So tell me, Artemis, how will killing you be a bad thing? Because I'm sure we can find someone to take your place."

By then, Artemis' face was the colour of snow, and all the fight had completely gone out of her as she found herself confronted by a very real and palpable threat.

"Let me go," she begged, and they could all see the humiliation in her face at being reduced to such a pathetic wreck. "You can have the kid's soul, and I'll even leave the freak alone..."

Simi hissed in Artemis' face, causing the goddess to scream in fright.

"Not a freak," Simi snarled, rage releasing her full demonic nature for all present to see. "The Simi's Jacky is special. The heifer goddess is wrong. Say sorry, heifer goddess, or the Simi is gonna chow down on you."

"Sorry," Artemis gasped. "I'm sorry."

Simi smirked, and then looked up to Savitar and Ash hopefully.

"Akri? Can the Simi have one little taste? Pretty please?"

For a moment, it seemed that Ash was actually considering letting her do it. Then, he drew in a long, calming breath and shook his head.

"No, Simi. Not today. We have what we came for. We saved Jack. It's time to leave."

"Poop," Simi pouted, but obediently released Artemis from her grasp. "The Simi gots her hopes all up, and there's Akri-Papa saying that word again that the Simi don't like."

Ash smiled fondly as she retreated to his side, but maintained her demonic form.

"The soul, Artemis," Savitar said sternly. The threat in his tone could be heard by all present, and Artemis dared not argue. She held an innocuous looking bottle out and Savitar took it in a single, swift grab. The bottle disappeared from sight as quickly as it had appeared, and Savitar allowed himself a small smirk.

"Now, say goodbye, Artemis."

Artemis' eyes widened just a split second before she vanished from sight. Startled silence reigned, and then Ash spoke quizzically as he transformed back into his preferred human state.

"Do I want to know what you did with her, or should I just not ask?"

"I thought I'd cut her some slack," Savitar said, sounding entirely too smug for Ash's liking. "I sent her to where she can get complete rest."

"Oh goddesses, you didn't send her to Venus, did you?" Vane asked with a groan. "She'll be totally pissed..."

"Relax, wolf," Savitar snapped. "I didn't send her to Venus. I sent her to the Eleysian Fields."

Again, and probably not for the last time, stunned silence reigned.

"What did Akri-Savitar do that for?" Simi asked with a pout. "Them's nice places. The heifer cow don't belong in nice places."

Ash, however, understood and a low chuckle rumbled deep in his chest.

"The Eleysian Fields wipe your memory clean. Artemis won't have a clue who she is, and she'll be so content that she won't care."

"Obviously, it's not going to be permanent," Savitar conceded, sounding mildly regretful. "Sooner or later, one of the other gods will work out where she is and pull her out of there. But until that happens, you'll get some peace and she'll be safe from whatever pain in the ass bullshit she usually gets up to. Now, let's go wrap this up. I have a wave to catch."

"We never did find out how she managed to shift time," Ash pointed out as they entered the TARDIS.

"She didn't," Savitar said. "It was like a sort of time bubble, and I think we'll find that she paid a secret visit to her grandfather in order to do it."

"Kronos?" Ash murmured, quietly horrified.

"Exactly. Which is how I knew she was bluffing about calling Zeus. If he knew she'd been dealing with the king of the Titans, he'd end her himself. She was messing with something that she had no hope of controlling. Stupid, ignorant little girl."

"What is it about Jack that he's worth so much trouble?" Dev wondered incredulously. Savitar looked simultaneously pained and resigned.

"He's destined for a future that none of us will probably be around to witness." He paused, and then smiled wryly. "Well, maybe one of us will be."

A slight frown crossed Ash's face.

"What do you mean? If we give Ianto back his soul, he'll regain his mortality and he won't live for a fraction of Jack's lifespan."

Savitar, however, only smirked and said nothing.

* * *

><p><em> to be continued...<em>


	15. Revelations

The sight that met them when they entered the TARDIS' medical room was a gut-wrenching one, even for four men who had each seen or experienced so much in their own individual life-times. Jack lay on a bed on his side, clearly in an effort to take the pressure off the open wound that was his back. From head to toe, his body was covered in bloody, criss-cross lacerations from the fiery twine that Artemis had used to bind him. The thread that had kept his lips sewn shut was also gone, but vicious puncture wounds were visible for all to see, along with lacerations that had left his lips a torn and bloodied mess.

Ianto stood by tensely while the Doctor ran around, flipping switches, fiddling with unidentifiable equipment and occasionally pausing to check on Jack himself with a worried frown.

"Well?" Savitar asked as he led the way in. "Can you heal him?"

The Doctor ran his hands through his already messy shock of hair.

"He will heal, but there's nothing I can do to help the process along. The thread that Artemis used, combined with the time bubble she created..."

"She didn't do that," Ash said.

"It doesn't matter who did it. It's put the brakes on Jack's ability to heal. It will get back to normal, but it's going to take time."

"And in the meantime," Ianto said bitterly, "Jack has to suffer."

"There's a way to help him more quickly," Savitar pointed out, only to have both Ianto and the Doctor turn on him angrily.

"No," the Doctor snapped. "I will not allow you to kill him, just to reset him. I don't care who you are or how much Jack might have pissed you off in the past. I will not allow it."

"I agree with the Doctor," Ianto said soberly. "He's right in that we can't kill Jack, but I don't agree with his reasoning for why. If it meant an instant reset, then I'd put a gun to his head and pull the trigger myself. But it's not. Dying hurts, and resurrecting hurts even more. If we killed him now, he would take all of the pain he's in with him into death and when he came back, he'd be in double the agony. He will heal, and we just need to let it happen because I will not allow anyone to do anything that will just cause him more pain."

Ash walked over to the bedside and crouched down to look Jack in the eyes. The immortal man's eyes were feverish with pain, but he still fought to speak.

"I... sorry..."

"Don't talk," Ash murmured. "Save your strength. You're safe and Artemis will never dare lay a hand on you again." He reached out and brushed his fingers ever so gently over Jack's eyes. "Sleep until you've healed."

Jack had no will to resist the command. His eyes closed his easily, and he visibly relaxed as sleep claimed him.

"Thank you," Ianto said gratefully. Ash nodded in acknowledgement.

"Yeah, well, it's about time someone gave him a little consideration. Now..." His gaze focused on Dev and Vane, who had been watching from the doorway of the med room. "You two, with me. Time for a little chat."

"Just head straight up the corridor," the Doctor suggested. "Kitchen will be the first door on the right, garden on the left and the library a bit further on. Go where you like, but for Rassilon's sake, don't go near the worms in the garden. They're from Rango Eighteen, and they'll take your fingers clean off."

Looking bemused, Ash herded the two Were Hunters from the room, leaving Simi behind with a murmured request for her to watch over both Jack and Ianto.

Tearing his eyes away from Jack briefly, Ianto observed the Doctor and Savitar with ill-suppressed amusement. It hadn't escaped his notice that the two looked completely at ease next to each other, and he couldn't help feeling curious.

"Any chance I might ever find out how you two know each other?" he wondered.

"Not while you're still breathing," Savitar replied bluntly. "I like you, kid, but don't push your luck. As for you, you alien time hopper..."

"Oi!" the Doctor protested. Savitar smirked, giving every impression that he took special pleasure in baiting the Time Lord.

"C'mon. I want to see more of this ship. You were a little too quick to kick me off the last time, and I want to know if she really does have a wave pool that can simulate the Big One."

Ianto barely heard them go. His focus was already back on Jack, and he wasn't even aware of Simi's presence until she spoke.

"The Simi is sorry for thinking Jacky runned away. He is definitely quality peoples."

"Yes, he is," Ianto agreed softly. "He deserves better than this."

Simi frowned.

"You wouldn't be thinking of running away from Jacky? 'Cause the Simi would be mighty disappointed in you if you does, and she might just have to come after you with her barbeque sauce. And the Simi doesn't want to do that, because her Yan is quality peoples too."

Ianto sighed and shook his head.

"No, Simi, I'm not going to leave Jack. I did it once involuntarily, but I guarantee I will never do it by choice."

"Good," Simi said happily. Ianto couldn't help but smile at her simplistic contentment. He might not have agreed that everything was good, but he could agree that things were definitely on the improve, and he was okay with that.

* * *

><p>"You know he's gonna be a target from now on, right?" Vane asked as he, Dev and Ash sat in the kitchen, devouring what was unidentifiable but seriously delicious food. "If not Artemis, there are plenty of others who'd give their fangs to have him. As much as I hate to admit it, that Gwen woman wasn't wrong when she said Jack would be better off away from all of us."<p>

Ash sighed.

"Vane, I would've expect a dumb-ass statement like that from one of your brothers. Not you. Our fight covers the whole world, not just the USA. Jack's known to the enemy now, and there is no safe place on this world for him. Just like there's no truly safe place for any of us. He just deals with it, the same as we do."

"And what about when Zeus finds out about him?" Dev asked sombrely. "Because you know he will. The shit'll really hit the fan, then."

"Well, it all depends," Ash mused. Both Dev and Vane looked suspiciously at Ash.

"Depends on what?" Dev asked. "What are you plotting?"

"I'll let you know in time. Now, about everything you've seen and heard..."

"We can't pretend that we didn't," Dev conceded, "but is it any consolation that we still think you're the same cocky bastard that you were before we found out that you're actually an Atlantean god who's capable of kicking Artemis' ass clean across the galaxy?"

The complete and fully exaggerated innocence with which Dev spoke sent Ash into gales of laughter. When it subsided, both Were Hunters were grinning cheerfully at him.

"Seriously," Vane assured him, "you are, and will always be just Ash to us. Is that good enough for you?"

Ash nodded.

"Yeah, it is."

"At least for now," Dev added wryly, voicing the bit that Ash had kept to himself. "We get it, Ash. You're gonna be watching us like a hawk. That's okay. We won't betray you, and if we do..."

"You have our express permission to obliterate our furry asses," Vane concluded. Dev shot him a glare.

"I _was_ going to say 'kick our asses', but I suppose I can live with that option, too."

Ash rolled his eyes, but at the same time he couldn't help smiling. It was bozos like these that made his oh-so-long life just that much easier to cope with.

"Don't worry," he told them both. "I will."

Dev and Vane exchanged uncertain looks.

"You will what...?" Dev wondered uneasily.

Ash's only reply was a grin that did nothing to reassure either man.

* * *

><p>"So, are you going to tell me what you're planning?" the Doctor asked, watching in amusement as Savitar examined the wave pool options with a rarely-expressed enthusiasm. The Doctor was anxious to get the conversation done, knowing full well that Savitar would be incommunicado for days once he got the wave pool going to his satisfaction.<p>

"You think I'm planning something? That's rich, coming from you."

"Don't play games, Savitar. I know you too well. You may not like Jack, but you do like Ianto, even if you don't want to admit it. Secondly, you claimed Ianto's soul back from Artemis, didn't you?"

Savitar smirked.

"Did I?"

The Doctor chose to ignore the smug attitude.

"Thirdly..." He faltered, and Savitar's smirk widened.

"Well?"

"Okay, so I can't think of number three," the Doctor snapped. "But I'm sure there is one. What I will say is that you either tell me what you're planning, or I kick you, Acheron and your lapdogs out of my ship and take Jack and Ianto as far away as possible. And you of all people ought to know just how far that could be."

Still amused, Savitar tore himself away from the wave pool controls and faced the Doctor.

"You're either very brave or very stupid. Not even Ash would dare to give me an ultimatum like that."

Far from looking smug, the Doctor just looked tired.

"You don't frighten me, Savitar. You would have ended me years ago, if you really wanted to. We both know that you won't."

Savitar grunted.

"Maybe. All right. Sit."

The Doctor sat, not questioning where the chairs had suddenly appeared from.

"Tell me what you sense when you see Jack," Savitar instructed. The Doctor winced at the mere thought.

"He's wrong, an aberration. He shouldn't exist."

"But he does, and we both know he's going to outlive all of us, so get over yourself. This is important. Look past what you see as wrongness, and tell me what you see."

Looking for all of Gallifrey like he wished he'd never pushed the discussion, the Doctor closed his eyes and focused.

At first, all he could see was the wrongness that vibrated so powerfully against his Time Lord senses. He wanted to pull back, but he dared not. Savitar had set the challenge, and the Doctor was painfully conscious that he was in the presence of one being who could easily tear him apart. He'd faced Daleks, Cybermen and the worst the universe had to offer, but Savitar was an enigma that he both respected and feared. He dared not shirk the challenge.

And suddenly, there it was. It was just a glimmer, hidden well and truly in amongst the chaos that was the reality of Jack's existence, but it was there all the same – an ancient bloodline, heavily diluted by the passage of time but still recognisable to anyone who knew what they were looking for.

His eyes snapped open, and he stared at Savitar in shock.

"You knew... How long have you known?"

"From the moment I first met him," Savitar said. "Then, it wasn't an issue. It was so heavily diluted that it didn't really mean anything. Now, it's going to give him and the kid the legitimacy they need to keep Artemis off their backs."

The Doctor frowned deeply.

"But you have Ianto's soul. He can be human again."

Savitar rolled his eyes.

"For a being of supposedly superior intelligence, you really are fucking moronic sometimes."

"Oi! Language!"

Savitar ignored the chastisement.

"Yes, I have the kid's soul, but think about it. What do you think he'll go for, given the choice? Living out a normal, mortal existence, or spending a potential eternity with a poncy bastard who loves him like nothing he's ever known?"

"Ah. Right. I see your point."

Savitar nodded in satisfaction.

"Thank you. And now, with this added bit, it's going to be near to impossible to kill the kid... provided they go that extra step."

"Mm. So, you'll be wanting to pay a visit to Acheron's sisters, I assume?"

A truly malevolent grin spread across Savitar's face.

"Oh yeah. That's one little chat I am _really _looking forward to."

"You're evil, Savitar," the Doctor said, with a hint of ill-concealed amusement.

"And damn proud of it," Savitar retorted. "Anyway, like I told Dev and Samia, anything to shove it up those little bitches is a good thing in my book."

The Doctor shook his head in wonder at the turn things had taken.

"Jack, a Were Hunter. I never saw that coming."

"He's not a Were Hunter," Savitar corrected. "He doesn't have the ability to shape-shift. At least, not at the moment. What he has is a very diluted Arcadian bloodline running through him."

"Ah, right... Hang on! What do you mean, _not at the moment_?"

Savitar grinned wickedly.

"You said it yourself, Doctor. He's an impossible thing."

The Doctor was still sitting there, jaw agape, when Savitar shed his clothes in favour of board shorts, and plunged into the wave pool with his surfboard.

* * *

><p><em>to be continued...<em>


	16. Visitations

_A/N: In which Savitar and Ash tell Jack of his heritage, and then pay a little visit to Ash's sisters, the Fates..._

* * *

><p>When Jack regained consciousness to find Ash and Savitar standing over him, and Ianto nowhere to be seen, he honestly believed he was a dead man. Forget the power of the vortex, and the Doctor's assertion that nothing could be done to reverse his immortality. None of that had anything on these two and if anyone could find a way to end him permanently, it was Savitar.<p>

"I don't think he looks happy to see you," Ash remarked amusedly. Savitar smirked.

"And I thought he was a sucker for a pretty face."

Jack cringed, reluctantly remembering that that was the very line he had dished out to Savitar that had caused the ancient immortal to kill him. At the same time, he'd only just recently discovered his own immortality, and had been hell-bent on pushing the limits. He'd found the brick wall he was looking for in Savitar.

"Only one pretty face now," he mumbled. "Where is Ianto? Or do I not get a chance to tell him goodbye?"

"Don't be a dick," Ash snorted, "or we might just forget that you were the victim here."

When confusion flickered across Jack's face, Ash shook his head dismissively.

"Don't think about it too hard. For the record, Ianto is fine. We kicked him out of here because we have a little gift for you, in the way of information."

Slowly, with some effort, Jack sat up, and as he did so he realised he was no longer in the TARDIS, but one of the rooms in Sanctuary.

"The Doctor's gone?" he wondered. "I mean, I didn't imagine that, did I? We were in the TARDIS, weren't we?"

"Yeah, we were," Savitar confirmed. "Much as I hate to admit it, we needed that alien git to find you. Artemis had you trapped inside a timelock. I believe you're familiar with those?"

Jack nodded wordlessly. His heart ached as he thought of Toshiko but a small, fond smile graced his features as he recalled her finest achievement; the timelock that had saved Ianto and Gwen from a Dalek assault.

"She's in a good place, Jack," Ash told him quietly. "They both are."

Ash's quiet, sincere words lifted a long-held shadow on his heart, and Jack nodded in gratitude.

"Thank you."

"If we're done with the touchy-feely stuff?" Savitar snarked, but there was no heat in his words.

"Sorry," Jack apologised, though the smile that quirked at the corners of his mouth suggested he was less than sorry; something that Savitar appeared to be well aware of.

"Uh huh, sure you are. In answer to your question, the Doctor used his ship to find you, and we did the rest."

Jack frowned a little at that, but most of the rescue escaped his admittedly sketchy memory. In fact, most of his captivity was little more to him now than a blur and a residual ache through his exhausted body.

"Don't try to remember," Ash advised him. "It's not worth the grief it'd cause, believe me."

Jack did believe him, and trusted him enough to decide then and there that the Atlantean was right. Judging by how he felt right then, Jack decided that he didn't want to remember. It was luxury he could only wish he'd had after that year on the Valiant.

"Hey," Ash said, laying a strong hand gently on Jack's forehead. "Try and focus for just a few more minutes. We have something to tell you that'll mean you and Ianto will never have to be separated, if that's what you really want."

"What is it?" Jack asked, forcing himself to concentrate, even as his heart started to pound at the mere thought of never having to be parted from Ianto again. "I'll do it, I'll do anything. I never want to lose him again."

"All right, listen close," Savitar said. "You're a descendant of the Arcadian line of Were Hunters. The bloodline is pretty heavily diluted, but it's still there all the same. Now, if you're willing, I can activate that part of your DNA. It won't make you a fully-fledged Were Hunter and I don't know if you'll ever have the ability to change into animal form, but it'll be enough to make it possible for you to receive a mating mark."

"And before you say that that means anyone could get the matching mark," Ash said quickly, "Savitar and I are going to pay a little visit to the Fates. We promise you that Ianto will get the matching mark."

"Only catch is," Savitar warned, "you've gotta seal the deal within a week."

"Or...?" Jack wondered, not entirely sure that he really wanted to know. Savitar smirked.

"Or, you'll be impotent for the rest of your life."

Jack whitened just fractionally.

"Oh."

"So, do you want it?" Savitar pressed. Jack let out his breath in a rush. He knew what _he_ wanted, and he was fairly sure he knew what Ianto would want as well. However, he had no intention of starting a new life together based on assumptions. Ianto deserved to make his own choice – even if Jack ended up getting his heart broken all over again.

"I do want it," he answered, "but Ianto deserves the chance to decide for himself. I won't say yes unless he does. I won't bully or guilt him into a relationship with me that he doesn't have an out from."

Savitar smiled, then. It was a genuine smile that eased Jack's fears better than any words could have done.

"Well said. You've changed for the better, Jack. See that it sticks."

Jack sighed, relaxing back in the bed.

"With Ianto around? It will."

* * *

><p>Outside Jack's room, Ash and Savitar exchanged amused and rueful looks.<p>

"Still think I fucked up taking him on as a squire?"

"Don't push my buttons, Ash. I'll obliterate your ass."

Ash snorted.

"No, you won't."

"Did I say it would be permanent? I can still make you suffer, junior."

"Admit it, Savitar. He's a good person."

"He always was. Didn't keep him from being an annoying son of a bitch. Anyway, I am not going to stand here and debate Jack Harkness's morals with you. We have a little visit to make to your sisters. Are you ready?"

Ash couldn't quite stop himself from smiling evilly. This was something he was truly looking forward to.

"Let's go."

* * *

><p>How Atty failed to see them coming, neither she nor her sisters would ever be able to explain. In full control of the future, as she so believed, Atty should have known they were coming. She should have been able to pinpoint the precise second when they would arrive, allowing the three of them to be well prepared. The fact was that she didn't foresee their arrival, and as such was unable to warn her sisters of the potential doom that was about to descend on them.<p>

Savitar and Acheron arrived with no warning, no fanfare – nothing. One moment, Lachesis, Clotho and Atropos were contentedly weaving the threads of life, humans and immortals alike. The next, Savitar and Acheron stood in the midst of them with expressions on their faces and radiating a level of power that would have given pause even to Zeus himself.

Lacy screamed, and Cloie quickly followed suit, and the two women tried to flee in sheer panic.

"I don't think so," Savitar said, and the doors of their vast chamber slammed shut just before they got to them.

"Not going to try and run?" Ash asked of Atty. The smallest of the Fates regarded her half-brother with a look of boredom that did little to cover the fear she was experiencing.

"Would it do any good?"

"No, but I'd enjoy chasing you down," Ash shot back. Savitar quirked an amused smile.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you didn't know we were coming. But that's impossible, because you're the Fate who sees the future, aren't you?"

Atty glowered, but dared not retort. Outraged though she was at this intrusion into her and her sisters' sanctuary, being confronted by Savitar as well as Apostolos was no laughing matter; especially considering their last encounter with their half-brother had ended with him threatening their ultimate destruction should they ever try to sever his wife's life thread again. It was something she had contemplated many a time since, out of sheer cruel spite, but knew in herself that she would never again be brave enough to attempt.

"What is it that you want?" she asked as Cloie and Lacy rejoined her, herded back by Acheron. Savitar's smirk widened into a grin.

"You don't know that either? This is priceless!"

"I can't see the future where it concerns him," Acheron mused. "It's no surprise that they can't, either. It's got something to do with the vortex inside him."

"Mm. Anyway, why we're here…" Savitar grinned unpleasantly at Atty. "You three bitches are going to do us a favour."

Cloie uttered a strange noise.

"Us? Do a favour for you? Why would we want to do that?"

"Because we're not giving you a choice," Acheron growled.

"Going to kill us, if we refuse?" Atty asked in a voice that held far more confidence than she felt. "Because you know what will happen if you do."

"Don't threaten us," Savitar growled. "You think we, of all people, don't know the potential consequences? And anyway, we never said anything about killing you. As much as I hate you three, you've got a job that no one else wants, and I've got no desire to take it off you."

"Then you have nothing to bargain for the favour you want," Lacy hissed.

"Let me rephrase that," Savitar said thoughtfully. "I've got no desire to destroy you... but that doesn't translate to _won't_ destroy you."

Acheron grinned, then, and the sight of that grin sent a chill of fear through all three Fates.

"See, when he said 'favour', he was just being polite. What he meant was that you are going to do what we want, and you will not deviate in any way."

"And if we refuse?"

Savitar's lavender eyes darkened almost to violet, and his voice held not a threat, but a very dark promise.

"Oh, baby, give me an excuse. Please…"

Atty looked from one to the other, no longer able to hide her fear. Here, even above and beyond the great Zeus, were two of the three immortals that she feared. No, not just feared – regarded with mortal terror. Given the right circumstances, Atty and her sisters knew damned well that Acheron and Savitar would destroy them, and do it gladly. Whatever they wanted, she suspected it would be trivial in comparison to risking their own existences… or rather, she hoped.

As Savitar had said, perhaps he and Acheron didn't care to kill them, but that didn't translate to _wouldn't_. It was a risk that she dared not take.

"What do you want?" she asked, trying and failing to retain a look of detachment. It was pure conceit on her part, not that she would ever admit that. Above all else, she refused to concede that she had no control within her own domain. Never mind that Acheron and Savitar could no doubt see straight through her bravado; as long as she believed it, that was all that mattered. Or, so she told herself.

"Jack Harkness and Ianto Jones," Acheron said. Atty stiffened, but Acheron continued speaking before she could so much as utter a squeak in response. "You know who they are. You know all about them, so don't try to behave as though you don't."

"His name is not Jack Harkness," Cloie said. "He hides behind a veneer of lies and deceit."

"That's not your problem," Acheron said in a low, warning tone.

"Jack carries the Arcadian bloodline within him," Savitar said.

"It matters not," Lacy said vaguely. "The bloodline is diluted. He will never be a Were Hunter."

"We don't care about that," Savitar snapped. "And since neither Ash nor I can see his future, I sincerely doubt little Atty here can. The point is that he _is_ Arcadian, however badly the bloodline is diluted, and that entitles him to certain things – like a lifemate."

"What are you asking?" Atty hissed, even though she already knew what they wanted.

"You _will _give Jack and Ianto matching mating marks," Savitar told them. "I'm not asking you. I'm telling you. You _will_ do this. Those two are going to be life companions, and you're going to help them achieve it."

"We can't!" Cloie cried out, her eyes wide. "You can't force us to do that! Zeus…"

"Zeus doesn't even know they exist," Acheron growled, "and he's not going to find out, either. Stop acting like the world will end if you pair them off. We all know there's only one way that will happen, and if you force me into it, so help me I will go down to Kalosis and set her free, just so I can have the pleasure of watching her obliterate the three of you."

Though they would not have said so, it was a true pleasure for Ash and Savitar to witness the wide-eyed horror of the three Fates as they realised they had no choice – not if they valued their existence.

"Fine," Atty spat. She was already imagining ways to pay back the two of them, although in her heart she knew imagining was as far as it would go. She dared not cross either Acheron or Savitar, not in the way that she and her sisters so often crossed the gods of the Greek pantheon; for while the Greek gods were frightened of the Fates and what they could do, with Acheron and Savitar it was the other way around. "It's done. Provided they follow the ritual when the mating mark appears, they will be together until death takes them. Now, if you would please leave…"

"Not so fast, Atty," Ash said, catching hold of her arm in an unbreakable grip. "You forget, I know how slippery you can be, little witch. You know about Jack, and therefore you know he's prone to getting killed. You will _not_ sever Ianto's life thread until Jack has died his final, permanent death. And you will _not _attempt to end Jack's existence prematurely. We know how long he's supposed to live for, and when he's supposed to die for good, and you won't cause it to happen before then. Do you understand me?"

Atty hissed, glaring at Acheron with pure hatred.

"You can't make me enforce that. The life force ritual is binding. If Ianto dies, so too does Jack – permanently."

Suddenly, Acheron's hand was around her throat, not squeezing but holding in a threatening, powerful grasp.

"Yes. I can make you enforce that, and no, Ianto's death will not end Jack. Instead, Jack's life force will bring Ianto back, and keep bringing him back until the time is right for them both to die. Now, do it. Jack and Ianto are destined to be together, and neither you nor anyone else is going to interfere with them. Now, do you understand me?"

"Yes," she growled sulkily. "I understand. No killing off the pretty immortal human and his mate."

Satisfied, Ash released her finally.

"Very good, Atty. Remember that promise, because if anything happens to those boys before time, I _will_ send you straight to Tartarus."

"And I'll be there to watch, just for the hell of it," Savitar added with a borderline demented grin. Ash barely suppressed an unusual urge to roll his eyes. Savitar was enjoying this just a little too much.

"You don't kill them; you don't encourage anyone else to kill them; you don't employ anyone else to kill them; you don't take any measures at all to send them to an early grave. Got it?"

"All right!" Atty shouted, losing her much-valued calm exterior as Ash and Savitar effectively closed all the loopholes on her. "I get it! Ianto Jones' life thread will remain untouched until Jack Harkness draws his last breath, and the last of Boekind passes from this existence."

As she spoke, her voice took on a strange, lilting quality, signifying the proclamation of a new prophecy, and her sisters joined her as she spoke.

"When the last of Boekind passes through the veil, the soul of the Hunter shall be restored at last and they will be forever joined in death. Let it be so."

"Thank you," Ash said quietly, with a touch more sincerity than he'd realised he was capable of. "You've done a good thing."

Coming back to her senses, Atty glowered resentfully at Ash. She knew what she'd done straight away, and would never forgive him for forcing her into it. She and her sisters had prophesied that Jack Harkness and Ianto Jones would live far longer than any godly pantheon on Earth would exist – beyond the length of time that they themselves would continue to exist – almost making them living gods and, to rub salt in the wound, they'd granted the two of them eternal companionship. It was a bitter pill to swallow, knowing that there was now nothing they or anyone else could do.

"Get out," she spat. "Both of you, out! You taint this place with your presence."

"You hear that, Ash?" Savitar asked smugly. "I don't think we're welcome here anymore. What a fucking shame. C'mon, let's blow this place."

As they prepared to leave, they heard Cloie attempting to comfort her sister.

"Be at peace, Atty."

"Yes, and remember," Lacy said gently, "at least there will be no children from their union."

Atty froze, looking past her sisters to where Ash and Savitar stood. Savitar wore a wicked grin that could mean only one thing. She opened her mouth and let out an ear-splitting scream, but it was too late. They were already gone.


	17. The Mating Mark

To say that Ianto was gobsmacked when he heard the news about Jack's lineage would have been a gross understatement.

"You, an Arcadian," he said in amazement. "I wonder which animal line?"

"No way of knowing," Jack said with a lopsided shrug, "and Savitar can't say if I'll ever gain the ability to shape-shift. It doesn't matter, though. What it means is if we choose it, we never have to be separated again, even by death."

Ianto nodded wordlessly, his thoughts going to Vane's mate, Bride, who had sealed her union with Vane by going that one step further and binding her life force to him. As long as Vane lived, Bride so too would Bride – her natural lifespan extended far beyond that of a normal human. However, if Vane were to be killed, Bride would die with him. Only being pregnant would prevent that, and then only until the birth of the child.

"We'd both potentially live forever," Ianto murmured, quietly struggling to digest that concept.

"No, we wouldn't," Jack said. "Savitar told me... Actually, it was more like strongly hinted that I'm not going to live forever."

"You mean, like having a limited number of resurrections available?" Ianto wondered.

"No, not exactly. I got the impression that when I die for good, it'll be natural causes."

Ianto stroked his fingers down the side of Jack's face and try as he might, he couldn't quite hide the amused grin that tugged at the corners of his mouth.

"You're telling me that you'll eventually die of old age?"

"I sense a joke coming," Jack growled. Ianto leaned in for a quick kiss.

"Sorry, not making fun of you. Just trying to picture you as an old man."

"And...?"

Ianto smiled softly.

"No matter how grey, or white, your hair might go, or how many wrinkles you might get, nothing can take away that gorgeous smile and the way it lights up your beautiful blue eyes."

Jack snorted.

"Flatterer. Still, that's a better image than, say, ending up as a big, wrinkly head in a jar."

"Where on earth did you pull that image from?" Ianto laughed as he settled down on the bed beside Jack.

"There's this... person called the Face of Boe," Jack explained. "He'd died long before my time, but he was supposed to have been the oldest living being in the universe. He was, literally, just a big head in a jar. I spun the Doctor a story about being known as the Face of Boe when I was recruited by the Time Agency, and now I think that he thinks that I'm the same Face of Boe that he's apparently run into a few times. From the look he gave me when we last saw each other, I'd say that's exactly what he thinks, actually."

Ianto resisted the urge to suggest that maybe Jack had just predicted his own future. He did believe it was unfair to say that Jack was egotistical about his appearance. Confident and self-assured, maybe, but not egotistical. However, suggesting that he was destined to become a wrinkled, ancient head in a jar would be pushing the boundaries just a little too far.

"I told Savitar that I wouldn't accept his offer until we talked," Jack went on in a quiet, serious tone. "I won't bully or guilt you into something that you don't really want. I love you too much for that."

Ianto was momentarily speechless with emotion, and he responded in the best way that he knew how. He kissed Jack fiercely and lingeringly.

"Well, you can tell him to go ahead and do it."

It took a moment for Ianto's words to sink in and when they did, Jack's face lit up with joy.

"You want it? You really, honestly want it?"

"Yes," Ianto confirmed with a grin. "I do. Anything that lets us be together is great, but anything that lets us be together forever is brilliant. I love you, Jack, and I don't ever want to lose you again."

"Same," Jack whispered as they kissed. "I love you, too, so much."

They were so caught up in the moment that it took a few seconds for either man to register the burning sensation on their palms. Ianto was the first to notice it, and his hiss of pain was followed by a surprised cry.

"Jack! Your hand! Quick!"

Jack's eyebrows shot up.

"You just want a hand job? Okay..."

"No, you twpsyn! Look at your hand!"

Jack looked in confusion at the palms of his hands, and his eyes widened at the sight of the archaic symbol there."

"Is this what I think it is?"

"A mating mark," Ianto confirmed. "_Our_ mating mark. Savitar did it, Jack."

Jack's breath escaped in a rush.

"So, what do we do? I mean, I assume there's a procedure of sorts to follow?"

Not for the first time, Ianto was grateful for his close relationship with Dev and Vane. Between the two of them, he'd gotten the details of the mating ritual for Weres. Though he had been less than interested at the time – Dev had been drunk on Soda Stream, of all things – Ianto was now grateful for the knowledge.

"First, grab the lube. You need to prepare me."

Jack lifted an eyebrow, and Ianto reddened.

"Right. Sorry." He concentrated, and a fresh bottle of lube appeared in his hand. "Cherif is going to kill me. Again."

Jack smirked.

"And I am not going to ask how you know where Cherif keeps his bottles of lube. Anyway, we'll buy him a replacement. Lie down."

Ianto lay down, and found himself naked almost before he realised it. He couldn't suppress a grin, even as Jack prepared him.

"You're... mm... You're so good at that. Bet you could give Vane a run for his money. He... oh god, right there... He reckons he once stripped Bride in two seconds... But he had to use magic."

Jack grinned, watching Ianto start to writhe as he deliberately brushed his lover's prostate.

"Does Bride know her husband kisses and tells?"

"If she doesn't, we're not going to be the ones to tell her... Oh, god, Jack, that's enough. You keep doing that, and I'll come right now."

Jack withdrew his hand, still grinning like the proverbial Cheshire Cat.

"What now?"

"Now," Ianto said breathlessly, "I need you to lie back, and we have to join our marks."

Jack almost fell off the bed in his eagerness, inducing a giggling fit in his lover.

"My big, tough Dark Hunter," Jack teased fondly. "Giggling like a little kid..."

Ianto smirked again as they joined their palms, but chose not to make a joke about Jack's age compared to his own. The last thing he wanted was to spoil the moment.

"Now, I have to take you inside me without interference."

"Hence the preparation?"

"Not exactly. I need you to just lie there, and let me do the work. You can't touch me, except for the obvious. It's just a way to ensure the mating isn't forced, that it can't happen through rape."

Jack frowned a little as Ianto sank down on him with a low groan.

"Why would a Were need to resort to rape when they have a specifically chosen mate?"

"Trust me, cariad. The Fates can be bitches, and it wouldn't be the first time that they deliberately paired off two completely incompatible Weres. Vane and Fang's parents are a perfect example. One was Katagarian, one was Arcadian and they hated each other with a passion."

Deciding the conversation needed to end, Ianto twisted a little, causing them both to groan loudly.

"What... what next?" Jack gasped, struggling not to move, knowing instinctively that it would negate the ritual.

"I say the vow, and you repeat it," Ianto told him breathlessly. "I accept you as you are, and I will always hold you close in my heart. I will walk beside you forever."

Jack gazed up at Ianto, overwhelmed with love.

"I accept you as you are, and I will always hold you close in my heart. I will walk beside you forever."

The words had barely left Jack's lips when he arched beneath Ianto, and his head rocked back as his canine teeth elongated. Ianto gasped in astonishment and wonder. Despite the assurances Ash and Savitar had given Jack, Ianto had harboured some doubts. This erased them entirely, and he knew that he and Jack were truly destined to be together.

"The claiming spell," Ianto said quickly, eagerly. "It's what will bond our life forces together."

"What do we do?"

"Bite my shoulder, and I'll do the same to you."

Jack hesitated, suddenly looking unsure.

"If we do this, then it means that we'll die together... right? What happens the next time I die? Because I couldn't survive it if I came back and you were dead."

"I won't be," Ianto assured him, feeling fully certain of his assertion. "Your only death that will take me with you is your final death, whenever that may be. Now bite me, cariad. Make me yours forever."

Jack didn't hesitate a second longer. He sank his newly acquired fangs into Ianto's shoulder.

White hot pleasure seared through Ianto, and he felt his own fangs lengthen even as he came harder and longer than he ever had before in his life. Without waiting any longer, Ianto bit into Jack's shoulder, tasting the blood, the magic and the sheer power of their union.

They belonged to each other now and, though the longevity of their union might occasionally mean spending time apart, only true death would ever really separate them now.

* * *

><p>"I had fangs," Jack remarked idly as they lay together some time later. "When we said the words, I actually grew fangs."<p>

Ianto regarded Jack in amusement.

"Does that bother you?"

"No. I was just thinking, I wonder what animal I might have been if I was a full-blooded Were. I don't think that I'd be a wolf... but a bear, maybe?"

Ianto couldn't help but laugh, and Jack looked wounded.

"I didn't think it sounded that ridiculous."

"Sorry, cariad. It doesn't, and I don't mean to make fun of you. I just thought, it's amazing how much you've changed. Twelve months ago... Hell, even less than that, you would have taken offence at the suggestion that you might be associated with anything less than the sleekest, most beautiful animal. Now here you are, suggesting you might be a bear, of all things?"

Jack grinned and relaxed once more.

"Yeah, well, bears are kind of up my alley, aren't they? Sort of loners, but still family oriented. It'd be interesting to know, that's all."

"It would," Ianto agreed. "Well... I suppose I'm going to need to talk to Ash about getting a new squire. It won't do for my own mate to be running errands for me."

"Don't," Jack begged, startling Ianto. "Not yet, at least."

"You can't seriously want to keep doing that job, surely?" Ianto asked incredulously. To his astonishment, Jack grinned sheepishly.

"I enjoy doing it. It helps you, and it gives me something to do, something practical. If you take that away from me, what am I supposed to do every day when you're sleeping?"

Ianto supposed that he could see Jack's point.

"I guess you're right. If you really want to keep doing the job, at least for now..."

Jack leaned in to kiss Ianto lingeringly.

"I really do."

"Then who am I to argue? Cariad..."

"Mm?"

"We're past the worst of it now. I really believe that. No more worrying about Gwen, no more worrying about Artemis... We just have to keep a watch for Stryker and his daimons."

"That shouldn't be a problem," Jack murmured. "Not in a long run, at any rate."

"Oh? How so?" Ianto asked with a wry smile. It sounded to him as though Jack was making plans without him, and though Ianto felt like he should be annoyed, he couldn't quite evoke that feeling within himself. Everything was going so well so far, thanks to some cunning manoeuvring by Ash and Savitar, and Ianto doubted that anything could succeed in obliterating his good mood.

"I need to tell you something," Jack said quietly, in a suddenly serious voice that sent a tiny shiver of concern through Ianto. The young Dark Hunter propped himself up on his elbow, and looked down at Jack critically.

"The last time I heard a line like that, I found out that you had a daughter and a grandson. Should I be bracing myself?"

Jack didn't smile, much to Ianto's consternation.

"What would you say if I told you that I can have children? And when I say that I can have children, I mean in the literal sense. Thanks to a combination of genetic engineering and evolution, I can actually become pregnant and give birth to a baby."

Ianto met the admission with silence. When he did finally speak, it was with a careful thoughtfulness that had no hint of the shock or disgust that Ianto suspected Jack had anticipated hearing.

"I think I'd say that we'd need to call the Doctor, and arrange a trip off Earth and well into the future. There is no way we can risk you giving birth here, in this time. Daimons aside, the only male pregnancy ever documented so far on Earth was completely artificial. If you do fall pregnant, sooner or later word of it will leak, and then all hell will break loose. No, we are much better off letting the Doctor take us somewhere safe."

"I can't believe how rational you're being about this," Jack said in amazement. "I thought you'd yell at me for not telling you, at the very least."

"Jack. For five years of my life, I lived and breathed all the weirdness that was Torchwood. I fell in love with an immortal man from the future. I had a pet pteranodon. Really, this isn't such a huge shock. Sorry to disappoint you, but it really isn't."

Jack couldn't help it. He started to laugh; great gales of laughter that shook him from head to toe. Ianto watched him for a while in amusement, waiting for Jack to calm down a little before speaking.

"Do I want to know what's so funny?" he asked. Jack smiled up at him with eyes that were bright with pure happiness.

"It just occurred to me again what an idiot I am... and how lucky I am. You made a deal, risking everything, in the hope that we'd one day be together again, not even knowing for sure if I'd still want to be with you. No one's ever had that sort of faith in my before, not even the Doctor. I promise you that I'll do my best to justify it."

Ianto smiled as Jack drew him down for another round of languorous kissing.

"I know you will, cariad. And so will I."

* * *

><p><em>to be continued...<em>


	18. Epilogue

_A/N: The Red House belongs to Helen Pattskyn's "Bonnie Welshman" series of stories. She very graciously gave me permission to use it in this chapter, and I am very appreciative of that. If you haven't read her stories, I strongly recommend it. They're awesome, especially if you're fond of cross-overs. (Seriously, she writes the greatest Torchwood/NCIS crossovers that I have ever read in my life.)_

* * *

><p>Jack stood on the hilltop, struggling not to shiver despite the protection of his greatcoat. He hadn't worn it for months now, but it was important that he be dressed in his old World War II style in order to ensure this little ruse went smoothly. He shifted restlessly, and his fingers brushed over his very slightly expanded belly beneath the coat. He was far more comfortable now in leather and denim than in this old retro getup, but needs must.<p>

He was there on that chilly hilltop for two reasons - to meet with Gwen one last time, and to avoid running into problems with UNIT or any of the other government agencies that had it in for him since the 4-5-6 debacle. He wore the greatcoat for two reasons - to ensure Gwen didn't see anything that might help her to remember New Orleans and Ianto (Ash insisted she couldn't remember, but Jack had made the mistake of that assumption once before to his detriment), and to hide the fact that he was nearly eight weeks pregnant.

A tiny smile flickered across his lips as he remembered the day just over a month ago when he'd walked into Sanctuary, and Aimee had taken one look at him and shrieked like... Well, like a girl. When they'd finally managed to calm her down, she'd simply pointed at Jack and choked out, "Pregnant!"

Needless to say, the men had roared with laughter at the seemingly ludicrous statement. It wasn't until Simi arrived on the scene with Ash that all doubts were squashed well and truly.

"Oo," Simi said with enthusiasm, "the Simi's Jacky is going to have a baby, just like Akra-Tori!"

It had almost been worth it, watching at least two Dark Hunters and several Weres spit out their drinks at Simi's announcement. It was one thing to dismiss Aimee as mistaken, but no one who valued their life laughed at Simi.

"Oh, that is seriously fucked up," Fang had said as they'd gathered around Jack. "I know that Savitar can be a bastard, but this is taking it too far, even for him!"

"Actually," Jack said wryly, "Savitar had nothing to do with this. Ianto and I achieved this completely naturally."

"Actually," Cherif said incredulously, "I think that might be even more fucked up."

Jack shrugged.

"I'm from the fifty-first century. Male pregnancy isn't exactly common by then, but it's not unheard of, either. And yes, the only way for the baby to be born is by Caesarian. I don't have a birth canal."

"Too much information right there, Harkness," Ash said as he joined the group. Jack smirked, but there was less provocation there than usual. Everyone present could see it. The Arcadian immortal was practically glowing with joy.

"Does Ianto know about this?" Ash asked. Jack smiled proudly.

"We found out together just this morning."

Despite the oddness of the situation, congratulations had flowed freely, and so had the drink - although Jack had politely declined alcohol in favour of water, much to the approval of all present.

It had later led to a serious talk with Ash, though, who had agreed that Jack could not stay on Earth whilst he was pregnant, that the temptation would be far too great for the likes of Stryker, and other such enemies. And so it had been decided that Jack and Ianto would leave with the Doctor, travelling to a future time and place where Jack could safely carry and deliver the baby. If they chose to return to Earth afterwards, they were assured that there would always be a place for them within the Dark Hunter and Were Hunter communities.

Then, as they were in the final stages of preparation with the Doctor, a message reached Jack, via the Doctor from Martha. Gwen was looking for Jack again - she had found his vortex manipulator in the wreckage of the Hub.

Bizarrely, it was the Doctor who had suggested that Jack use it as an opportunity get his manipulator back, and put Gwen off his trail once and for all. And so, a plan was hatched.

Jack would contact Gwen, and arrange to meet her, to retrieve his manipulator. Ash would take Jack back to Cardiff for the meeting, whilst Ianto went with the Doctor in the TARDIS, and they waited in orbit above the Earth to teleport Jack off Earth while Gwen watched. It would be up to Jack to make Gwen believe he was leaving Earth for good; something that Jack didn't think he'd have a problem with.

Then, the Doctor would take him and Ianto to Arys Major in the sixty-fourth century, where Jack would be able to get the right sort of medical care needed to see his pregnancy through safely. After the baby was born, it would be up to Jack and Ianto what they did and where they went. Ianto was no longer beholden to Artemis and, as the keeper of the young Dark Hunter's soul, Savitar had given his approval for him to choose his own path.

So here Jack was, standing in wait on a lonely, freezing hillside, all the while wishing he was in the TARDIS with Ianto, on their way to Arys Major.

"You still haven't learned patience," Ash said dryly. He was out of sight, hidden in the shadows, but Jack could hear him as well as if he was standing beside him.

"I waited for the Doctor for more than a hundred years," Jack pointed out.

"I'm eleven thousand years old, Jack. Don't try bullshitting me. A hundred years is a drop in the ocean by comparison."

"Nineteen hundred years buried beneath Cardiff, and another hundred cryo-frozen?" Jack offered.

Ash smiled wryly.

"Okay, I'll let you have that one, but you're still just a child, as far as I'm concerned."

Jack grinned, unable to stop himself.

"I can live with that... Grandpa."

"Smart ass," Ash growled, but his tone was awash with affection. He knew he could never give Jack the comfort of telling him what he'd done to cause the Time Agency to take his memories, but he could and would see to it that Jack and Ianto were helped and provided for in any way he could manage. Here was a man who had risked his life for a child that all but one human had either rejected or lusted after. It was a debt that Ash believed he should never forget, and could never repay.

"Here they come," Jack murmured, his expression sobering quickly as he spotted Rhys and Gwen coming up the hill.

"Do what you need to do," Ash said quietly, "and teleport away when you're done. I'll meet you in the TARDIS."

Jack inclined his head slightly in acknowledgement of Ash's directive before turning his focus towards the newcomers.

As they reached the crest of the hill, Gwen offered him an exhausted smile, and though that smile was friendly enough, Jack thought he could see a hint of accusation in her eyes - accusation at leaving her, he supposed. He didn't deny that it stung, but when all was said and done, he knew he'd chosen the right path. He had no regrets, and nothing Gwen could say or do would make him feel guilty for that.

"Couldn't have just chosen a pub, could you?" Gwen puffed as she reached him. Behind her, Rhys grunted in agreement.

"It's bloody freezing."

Jack grinned, though this time it felt forced. All of a sudden, he just wanted this to be over with, and to be safely on the TARDIS with Ianto and the Doctor. He adjusted his coat around his body a little, irrationally afraid that somehow Gwen would see through the material, and spot the baby bump that was just beginning to form.

"Oh, I missed that, the Welsh complaining." He paused, eyeing her far more swollen stomach and his expression softened a little. "You look good."

"I look huge," she scoffed, but the pleasure she felt shone through on her face.

"She's bloody gorgeous," Rhys countered, somewhat possessively, and Jack smiled at that. Slowly, as though he was a flighty rabbit in danger of bolting, Gwen walked towards him.

"You okay?" she asked softly.

Jack let his breath out in a huff, watching his breath form a cloud of frost briefly in the air before responding.

"Yeah."

It wasn't hard to put a touch of melancholy into his tone. He needed only to think of how things might have worked out if Ianto had not taken Artemis up on her offer; if he hadn't learnt about what had happened with Ianto... So many possibilities, and they still gave him nightmares.

Before he realized it, she was reaching out to touch his collar and straighten it, much to his private irritation. Whether it was conscious or not, she was emulating Ianto, and he didn't appreciate it at all.

"So… Did it work?"

Jack shrugged a little, pulling out of her grasp with the same gesture.

"Travelled all sorts of places. This planet is too small. The whole world is like a graveyard."

And oh, how bitterly true that was.

"Come back with us."

It was less of a suggestion, more of an imperative, and when she said 'us', he knew she really meant 'me'.

"Haven't travelled far enough yet. Got a lot of dirt to shake off my shoes. And right now, there's a cold-fusion cruiser surfing the ion reefs just at the edge of the solar system, just waiting to open its transport dock. I just need to send a signal."

He chose his words deliberately, and as though on cue, Gwen held up her finger in a 'just a moment' gesture before digging into her pocket and produced Jack's vortex manipulator.

"They found it in the wreckage of the Hub. Indestructible, just like its owner."

Jack barely avoided flinching at her words as he took the manipulator and secured it to his wrist.

"We put on a new strap for you," Gwen told him.

"Cost me fifty quid, that," Rhys called out. Jack smirked a little.

"Bill me!" he called back. He figured Rhys thought he was just taking the piss, but Jack almost wished he was around to see the look on the other man's face when he discovered the substantial amount that had been deposited into the couple's bank account. Severance pay, Jack had said simply when Ianto had queried it.

Gwen peered up at him with a familiar look of hopeful expectation.

"You're coming back, right, Jack?"

His expression was open and unguarded as he answered bluntly.

"What for?"

Tears began to well in Gwen's eyes.

"For me! Jack, it wasn't your fault!"

"Oh, I think it was."

He did, too. So much was his fault, and not just where the 4-5-6 was concerned.

Gwen shook her head anxiously.

"No, that's not true, Jack."

He wondered at her desire that he not blame himself when, so often in the past, she'd been all too willing to lay the blame on him when things hadn't gone the way that she expected they ought to. Jack shook his head.

"Ianto, and Owen and Tosh, and Suzie and... All of them. Because of me."

"But you, you saved us. Didn't you?"

She didn't realize how easy she was making it for him, and for that he was immensely grateful. He spoke, forming his words easily as he imagined how his life could have so easily self-destructed if Ianto had truly been lost to him, and he'd been forced to kill Stephen to stop the 4-5-6.

"I began to like it. And look what I became. Still. I have lived so many lives. It's time to find another one."

And oh, how true _that_ was. It just wasn't meant the way that Gwen naturally interpreted it. He stepped back from Gwen and lifted his vortex manipulator, making a deliberate and clear show of pressing a button, causing it to send a continuous beep.

Gwen stared at him, wide-eyed and teary, in what Jack recognized as a well-practiced look. As sympathetic as he still felt towards her, it was a look that no longer held any influence over him.

"Th-they died," she choked out, "and I am sorry, Jack, but you cannot just run away. You cannot run away!"

The teleportation field began to shimmer over Jack. He fought a powerful desire to smile, but even so he couldn't quite keep the hint of a smile off his lips. Soon, he would be back in the arms of his mate, and they would be safely on their way to Arys Major, and the sixty-fourth century.

"Oh, yes, I can. Just watch me."

And then the teleportation light engulfed him completely, and he felt himself being lifted off Earth and shooting skyward, re-materializing inside the control room of the TARDIS.

"Well done, cariad," Ianto said with a warm smile as he and Jack embraced.

"All clear?" the Doctor asked. Jack looked around as Ash appeared, a wry smile on his face.

"That was a bit overly-dramatic, wasn't it? Teleporting a la Star Trek in a beam of light?"

The Doctor smiled unashamedly.

"We talked it over. Jack felt that the greater the visual show, the more likely she would be to accept he was gone, beyond her reach. So now, I just need to wait from the inevitable call from Martha, asking me to find Jack because he's disappeared and Gwen is so terribly worried about him."

"That's almost snarky, Doctor," Jack said in a chiding tone, but he grinned as he said it. The Doctor smiled and looked back to Ash.

"You might want to say goodbye now, Acheron. I don't think it would be a particularly good idea to take you to the sixty-fourth century."

Ash nodded amiably. The truth was that he had no desire to see the future. He got enough of that as it was, with his ability to see everyone's future.

"Take care, both of you," he told Jack and Ianto. "And even if you don't choose to come back to Earth to stay, I want to see the little one when he or she is born. Understood?"

Jack snapped a salute, which Ash responded to with an affectionate cuff across the back of the head.

"Behave yourself, Jack. Don't give Ianto a hard time, or you'll have to answer to Simi when you get back."

Jack's grin softened into a warm smile at the mention of the Charonte demon.

"Give Simi a big hug for me, okay? And tell her I'm going to miss her, but when we get back we'll have a new cousin for her to meet."

"I will," Ash promised. He shook hands with Ianto. "Good luck, both of you, and take care of each other."

Both men nodded in answer, arms wrapped around each other possessively.

"Thank you, Ash," Ianto said fervently. "For everything."

Ash grinned back at them.

"Ditto. See you 'round, fellas."

And then he was gone, teleporting out in the blink of an eye.

"Well, then," the Doctor said, eyeing the two men with a smile. "Next stop, Arys Major."

Jack and Ianto exchanged grins. This was a new start for them both and while they knew they would eventually return to Earth at some point, right now they were content with how everything had turned out. They had each other without the fear of loss that had permeated their relationship not so long ago, and they had a child on the way.

All in all, life was good.

* * *

><p><em>Several linear Earth months later<em>

Jack approached the entrance to Sanctuary slowly, not out of trepidation but out of care for the precious bundle in his arms. It had taken far too long to get her to go to sleep, and he knew she'd be woken soon enough by the noise of the club. He wanted to salvage as many minutes of peace as he could before that happened.

"We could have waited, you know," Ianto said with a wry smile as he came to stand beside his lover and mate. Jack shook his head, speaking in a low voice.

"No, we promised. Besides, I want to show off, and it's not as if we can go home to Cardiff and compare baby stories with Gwen."

Ianto rolled his eyes in fond exasperation.

"All right, then. Let's go, cariad."

* * *

><p>Unsurprisingly, Dev was standing watch at the door, and his face lit up with surprise and pleasure when he saw who was coming.<p>

"Jack? Ianto! Damn, look at the two of you!"

Ianto accepted Dev's outstretched hand without hesitation, while Jack nodded in acknowledgement.

"Are you two trying to start your own pack?" the bear wondered, looking from the bundle in Jack's arms to the sturdy pram that Ianto was pushing. Ianto chuckled.

"Believe me, it was as much a surprise to us. We thought Jack was having twins, and that was daunting enough. Imagine our shock when the doctor lifted these two out, and found little Ashlyn hidden away behind her brothers."

A grin broke out across Dev's face.

"Ashlyn?"

Ianto nodded.

"Jack and I both agreed. And this is Savitar and Emrys."

Dev nearly choked, and Jack nodded.

"I know, but Ianto insisted on a Welsh name."

"Don't be smart," Ianto chided. "You know damn well why Dev reacted like that."

"When Savitar gave me and Samia a chance to have children, he said he wanted us to name our firstborn after him, but we didn't take it seriously!"

Jack smiled.

"Savitar never asked, or even told us. I thought it was fitting."

Dev peered into the pram at the two baby boys who were curled comfortably in against each other.

"Which one is which?"

"Emrys is on the right, Savitar on the left," Ianto said. "Savitar was technically the first one born, and he's about half an inch longer than Emrys. Ashlyn is smaller than both the boys, but she's feisty enough to make up for it."

Chuckling, Dev opened Sanctuary's door for them.

"C'mon, let's get those little ones out of the night air."

* * *

><p>It was no surprise to either man that Simi was the first one to spot them. Abandoning the enormous leg of lamb that she'd been devouring, she sprinted across the room with an excited squeal, throwing herself on Ianto, who embraced her willingly.<p>

"You're back!" she squealed in his ear, making Ianto wince ever so slightly. "And you broughts little humans!"

Simi peered at the boys, and then at Ashlyn, who had woken at the noise.

"They don't have hornays," Simi pouted. "They needs hornays."

"Unfortunately, we can't give them horns, sweetheart," Jack said with a smile as the other inhabitants of the bar gathered around. "But once they hit puberty, they should get their very own sets of teeth and claws."

"Oh my god," Aimee whispered in amazement as she looked at the babies. "They're Arcadian! But how...?"

"I'm descended from an Arcadian bloodline," Jack explained. "Savitar figured it out."

"Do you know what clan?" Fang wondered. "I mean, are you bear, wolf... Something else? Or are you Arcadian in name only?"

"I'll explain once we're sitting down," Jack said. "This little one is getting hungry."

"Dude, you're not... You know... breast feeding, are you?" Quinn asked uneasily.

Jack grinned, clearly taking pleasure in Quinn's embarrassment as he sat down and Ianto handed him a bottle.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but no. Fifty-first century men haven't quite evolved that much."

"Smart ass," Quinn retorted, but there was no malice in his tone. Ash ventured closer, looking down at the bundle.

"You did well, boys. She's beautiful."

"We may be biased, but we think they're all pretty gorgeous," Ianto said proudly as he lifted Emrys out of the pram and handed him to a bright-eyed Simi, and then lifted up Savitar. Ash's eyes widened a little.

"Three? Okay, I did not see that coming."

"Meet Savitar and Emrys," Ianto said, indicating the two boys.

"And our little miracle, Ashlyn," Jack added. Ash looked startled, but then his surprise melted into a happy grin.

"Can I...?"

Jack handed Ashlyn over to her namesake, who cradled her to him with a warm smile.

"You are going to be magnificent," he murmured, even though her future was hidden from him. "I'm sure of it." He looked up at Jack and Ianto with a wide grin. "All three of them are going to be magnificent."

"You said you'd explain about your Arcadian bloodline," Fang piped up.

Ash stepped towards the door that led through to the private part of the house.

"Let's take this somewhere a little more private."

They all filed through to the enormous kitchen that served the Peltier family and all of their adoptees, and there Ash settled into a chair with Ashlyn snuggled comfortably in his arms while she drank her bottle.

To the amusement of all, Emrys was giggling at Simi while little Savitar was comfortably ensconced in his Tad's arms.

"So what's the story, Jack?" Ash asked.

"I'll keep it short," Jack said, ignoring the roll of Ianto's eyes. "Everything went perfectly. The pregnancy, the birth, all of it. The triplets were born without any complications. We had to stay where we were for about six months until they were ready to travel. We were just preparing to call the Doctor when our settlement was attacked by slavers. They took just about everyone, including me and the triplets."

"It was daylight when they attacked," Ianto said bitterly. "One of about fourteen days in a whole year, and I couldn't do anything to help."

Jack leaned in to kiss him briefly before going on with the story.

"They were going to sell the babies to the Red House... It's an intergalactic whore house where children are raised to be prostitutes. The only way out is if someone buys your contract, or you die. And they were going to sell my babies to them."

"Be calm, Jack," Ianto murmured. "Remember, it didn't happen. Not to our babies, or to any of the settlers."

"What happened?" Aimee asked. Jack let his breath out slowly and he took a step back from everyone.

"This happened."

And suddenly, it was no longer Jack standing there, but an enormous black wolf. Stunned silence reigned, followed by raucous cheers. When Jack changed back to his human form, he was immediately swamped by fellow Were Hunters, all eager to congratulate him on discovering the animal within.

"It was a little frightening," Ianto said when they finally settled down. "He couldn't change back at first. It took half a day, and me giving him a full massage to relax him before he was able to change back."

"That's not unusual for a first time transformation," Dev mused. "I'm sorry you had to experience that without anyone to help you out."

"What happened to the slavers?" Ash queried, although he sounded as though he already knew. Jack's expression turned cold as he remembered the dramatic actions he'd taken. He supposed he could argue that it was the wolf in him that had taken over, and he'd had no real control over himself, but he knew that was a lie. And so he spoke the truth, bluntly and without remorse.

"I tore them to pieces, every last one of them."

There was no shock at his admission, only nods of understanding amongst the Weres who were gathered.

"They threatened your family," Fang said soberly. "If anything will bring out the killer instinct in a Were, it's that."

"Ianto?" Dev asked cautiously. He couldn't help but worry at how Ianto might react to such an admission, and hoped that it wouldn't result in Ianto fearing his partner. To his relief, Ianto smiled serenely and reached out to take Jack's hand in his own.

"He not only protected our babies, he also saved the entire settlement. I love him as much as ever. Even better, though, the people saw what he turned into, and what he did to the slavers, and when it was over, they didn't reject him. They celebrated him for the hero that he is."

"Not a hero," Jack murmured. "Just protecting my own."

"So what happens now?" Aimee wondered as she peered at the contented bundle in Simi's arms. "Are you back to stay, or will you be heading off again?"

"We're staying, at least for now," Ianto confirmed. "Maybe when the babies are older, we'll call on the Doctor again and take them travelling, but that'll be some way into the future. Right now, we want to be where they'll have a chance to learn about their heritage, and what it means to be Weres."

"And they won't be taught to hate," Jack said vehemently. "Arcadian or Katagarian, it won't matter. No hate, only acceptance."

"A new generation," Ash murmured with an approving smile. "I like the sound of that." He paused, glancing at them pointedly. "Are you ready for life here again? Because you know it isn't going to be a cakewalk."

"We know," Ianto confirmed. "But it'll be dangerous wherever we go. We stay here, and get caught in the middle of everything, or we travel have to deal with being a rare oddity that some lunatic might want to collect. Either way, there's likely to be some risk. Here, we're at least among friends."

"That you are," Ash agreed with a grin. "Welcome home, boys."

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><p><em>Fin.<em>


End file.
